Heaven Is But A Dream
by Senyor Fier Mensheir
Summary: An insulted god, aims to kill the Kyuubi, and only the Kyuubi. There is just one problem: Naruto
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto.

* * *

A demon of great height, walked slowly, steadily, and deadly past the numerous corpses of the shinobi and kunoichi who tried to stop it in its tracks. None were able. It did not even need to run. It just walked in a leisurely pace, stopping every now and then to swat away the bothersome insects that crawled around its feet. 

A great village was soon in its sight, it was an obstacle that blocked its path. Nothing was going to hinder it from reaching its destination. Its destination was as far as the Kamigami would allow. As far away from the one it had insulted. Insulting an Akujin, especially an exiled Akujin, was a really bad thing to do.

As the beast grew closer and closer to the village, the village threw everything it had at it, all awaiting the arrival of their greatest warrior.

Once the red moon had risen to its peak in the midnight sky, golden eyes peered through the battlefield's surrounding foliage, and witnessed the defeat of a false Tenijn, at the hand of a mere mortal man. The circumstance didn't matter. Kyuubi no Yoko, had been sealed, never again to walk the mortal plane.

In its new abode the Kyuubi slept, its final thoughts before sleep claimed him were that the Akujin would be unable to find him, or even kill him where he now resided. The Kyuubi's sealed power forever intertwined with the soul of his host.

Golden eyes saw it occur. They witnessed as the remaining Konoha no Shinigami took the bodies of the dead back to their village. They saw the Sandaime Hokage announced the defeat of the Kyuubi, and it's sealing into a child of the sun and sky.

In those golden orbs, the knowledge that the one it stalked was still alive, though barely, it was only a soul now, trapped in a mortal shell, a shell that could die. The golden orbs gleamed with annoyance and irritation. If there were to be one to kill its prey, it would be the owner of those ghostly golden orbs, orbs fading into the night, just as the red moon leaves its home in the sky, hiding behind the clouds.

* * *

Five years pass a night of celebration, of happiness, of joy, and of laughter, these emotions filling the atmosphere to suffocation. Yet, as silent as an assassin, hate mingles with the crowded emotions seeking out is assigned kill. Stealthily it sought out its prey, like a pervert to porn, it does not take long until its target it found. 

Granted strength and speed of an ageless god, and the will of immovable mountains, a child runs for his life, through the side streets and back alleys of his home, a village of great renown.

A mob had formed, like a pack of rabid dogs. The annual hunt, the yearly chase, had once again begun. Fear of the unknown drove the mob mad. Like hounds in a hunt they cornered their fox, in preparation for the kill.

With fists raised, pipes, poles, sticks, and stones, held in vice-like grips, it rained. A hurricane. A storm.

Like an endless waterfall, rivers of blood flowed unto the earth. No sound escaped its lips. Yet the sounds of piercing flesh, tearing muscle, breaking bone, and the death-filled-cry of long lost innocence could clearly be heard ringing in the October night air.

As sanity began its descent back into the crowd, they dispersed and returned back to the center of the village, back to civilization, to the world of men, exchanging hate for happiness.

A bloody mess, a living corpse, a cadaver gutted like a fish. Organs, bones, muscles, and flesh, splashed, scattered, squished, squeezed, torn, and stepped on littered the walls and ground of the nearly deserted alley.

Minutes pass, then suddenly an unnatural crimson and ghostly golden glow surrounds each and every body part, solid, liquid, and gas, each and every cell, tissue, muscle, bone, and flesh. The shell that housed the two souls could have been seen slowly and steadily rebuilding itself.

Four times prior had this child died. Four times prior had this child's soul walked through the gate to Makai and back. Four times has his body been rebuilt. But more times has he died. Has he floated a soul without a body, but always being pulled back, the Shinigami himself sometimes dragging the soul back into its shell, as if it feared something far eviler than itself.

Immortality of the mind, of the body, of the spirit, of the soul, a power others have dreamt of gaining but never, not one, succeeding. But such a unique power comes with great suffering. To have this power is to live a life where heaven is merely a dream, and shall never become a memory, unless the dark god smiles.

Continents away, iridescent eyes gain back their ghostly glow. On a shrouded face, a frown forms, and the figure fades.

* * *

Eerie swirling red orbs fly through the air, on the tops of trees, pursued swiftly by the eyes of the sky. 

On the boundary that separated fire from wind, red meet blue, and the world shimmers and fades away. But instantaneously being replaced by another world, a world of nightmares, nightmares that kill.

In the world of nightmares, in the world of the God of the Moon, images, visions of horrors, of memories past present themselves before blue eyes.

In the real world three seconds pass. Eyes locked in battle, but then red blinks and flees. The memory of three eyes engraved forever in his mind. Forever to haunt him in some dreams and nightmares.

One, blue, blue as the sky, in the face of death, defiance. Another, crimson and demonic, a promise of eternal torture. The last, golden eyes, the eradication of the entirety of the soul, along with the destruction of existence.

Darkness reigns...


	2. Chapter 2

Physically nine, but mentally and spiritually older, at an abandoned building he waited. His torso, bloody, as well as bleeding mass, guts spilling out, lying on the roof. Left arm dangling out an open window on the third floor, some flesh and bone already fallen to the pavement below, in a piss and shit filled bowl was where its counterpart lay. His legs could be found on the second floor, in nine separate pieces. Three of which continued to burn like bacon on a barbeque. The smell of burning flesh filling the air, washing the sensing with the scent of death.

On the first floor, the skull waiting for retrieval sat silently and patiently on the doorstep. Skin long stripped from the bone. Muscle long since turned to sashimi, left outside to feed the rats. Eye balls skewered on dango sticks. Lips torn off with the use of pliers. Tongue ripped out using tongs. Ears easily sliced off. Nose melted off with a controlled and miniaturized Gokakyu no jutsu. The brain had been turned to mush, squished flat, chugged into a blender, and spilled across the ground to water the weeds.

In the corner of one room on the first floor stood a meat grinder, in one opening what appeared to be a sausage was sticking out, and out of the other what looked like it used to be two meatballs.

The skull sitting on the doorstep, smiling, waited for the body to reform, to reshape, to be reborn.

Age ten. The mobs had stopped chasing him. Their hate shown in secret, no longer for public viewing, hate though hidden still attacked their intended target through appearing briefly in the eyes.

Failure. Weak. Useless. Words that could be used to describe the emotions, the feeling swimming in his heart, in his soul. Pathetic, he had grown in strength, speed, and stealth, but that was not all that was needed to succeed. His problem was control.

After dying so many times, his power had grown exponentially, taken on many more forms. While it took physical energy and spiritual energy to form his chakra, the two on their own were also combinations; both were mergers of two or more other elements each themselves. Whereas physical energy was a combination of physical strength, of stamina, and of will. Spiritual energy was a combination of the energies of heaven and hell. The Maryoku no Soushi and the Jaki no Toukai.

Then there was the crimson chakra, the power of the false Tenjin. As well as some of the ghostly golden energy, the power of the Akujin. The power of the false Tenjin, the power of a Bijuu, and the power of an Akujin, powers that could possibly control the balance between life and death, power that could possibly control the forces of Yin and Yang.

Loneliness. Isolation. Sitting on a swing in a park in the great Konohagakure no Sato. He sullenly sat or swung as he watched the celebrating people enjoying themselves beyond the boundaries of the park. Smiles on their faces, joy in their eyes.

Later in the day he would be visited and comforted by the Old Monkey. Followed by dinner at Teuchi's Ramen Stand.

Then the tenth day of his birth came and went. Not one person, chased him, hunted him, cornered him, or killed him. No one minded him, no one scolded, no one abused him. No one called him monster, no one called him demon. No one saw him.

The hunt was on. No longer hunted by the packs of wolves living in Konoha, but by the living Shinigami, the village protectors, the ANBU themselves.

Experienced killers, murder their profession, rushed on the rooftops, ran through the streets, and trekked through the sewers, all in pursuit of the vandal who had brought humor to the village's great monument. Clowns out of Kages.

Causing chaos, disruption of the peace, explosions, shouting, screaming, and shrieks of alarm, rang throughout the village. From colored to multi-colored, plumes of smoke erupted all around. Such a surprising feat caused by a laughing experienced youth.

Hysterically laughing as he, time and time again, dodged and evaded capture by the best of the village's best. Once the coast was clear the youth in an attempt to blend in more with his surroundings took the guise of another youth his age.

He was able to only take a few steps before his lips kissed the ground. His henge dispelled by a once upon a time master prankster. He was then easily knocked temporarily unconscious by a slight tap to the back of his neck, and then he was tied-up and gagged, before he was dragged unceremoniously to the hell hole known as the Ninja Academy.

Once the duo arrived in their respective room, the older of the two kicked the unconscious one hard, in the place where most males would not want to be kicked in. Upon impact the blond hit the ceiling while at the same time screaming like a homosexual bat out of hell.

Seeing and hearing this, the bunch of over thirty students in the room burst out into gales of laughter. Once common sense kicked in, those that had a particular organ hanging about swiftly crossed their legs and started sweating bullets at the thought of the same punishment being done unto them by none other than one of their own. The pile of "Kill Me!" once slamming painfully back into the floor, rushed as swiftly as the wind to the back of the room, and tried to use the desk in front of him as protection from any other possible future onslaughts.

But of course not every kid in the room was laughing his or her ass off. There was the sunglasses-wearing boy with a high-collared trench coat. He was not laughing. Maybe he was laughing inwardly, maybe not. Emotions plastered firmly in only Kami knows where. Another non-laughing kid was one with a pineapple ponytail for a hairdo. He was sleeping beside the window, eyes wide-open, looking wide awake, but in truth the region between the ears was empty of anything, be it thought or emotions. And a third kid was not laughing, his sense of humor being ripped right out of his being probably when he was still a toddler. He must have at least found the event amusing to some degree if his emotions could be based on his unending smirk and the way his hairdo resembles the ass of a duck.

Due to the misbehavior of almost the entire class, caused by the antics of the most empty-headed one among them, due to the laughing, as well as due to the oncoming headaches that come with teaching future murderers, traitors, and all around shinobi and kunoichi, the scarred chuunin formed one hand seal and performed his trademark jutsu, Screaming Big Head no Jutsu. No words required, just the enlarging of the head and loud noises coming out of the mouth once activated.

The words escaping his ginormous lips were:

"SHUT UP! STAND UP! FORM A LINE!"

Once his head returned to normal, he continued speaking while using a sickly sweet voice saying:

"When your name is called, kindly step forward and perform the Henge no Jutsu. Please remember to thank Naruto for this surprise test of skill. As well as please transform into our beloved Sandaime Hokage. If you do not comply, the punishment will not fit the crime."

Once the order was had ended being spoken the class as a whole rushed to the front of the classroom and did as instructed. Once everyone, including a petite and timid looking white-eyed girl, was done, the last name on the list was called.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The formerly tied-up and nearly made impotent prankster took one step forward, his very being emanating confidence in his ability. Smirking and having a mischievous glint in his eyes, he formed the ram seal and gathered an insane amount of his regular blue chakra. In a booming burst of ninja smoke, the blond was momentarily obscured from view.

A few seconds ticked by, when suddenly and shockingly, some of the smoke cleared and revealed a naked, busty blond bombshell, whose more intimate parts were somewhat covered by clouds. Making every straight male in the class, along with a few females, to go rocketing backwards as fountains of blood shot out of their noses, painting the room crimson and making them bathe in their own blood.

The remaining conscious girls in the room were told to go home by the lone surviving male in the room, their silver-haired assistant instructor, which promptly left the scene to fetch some medic-nin and fellow chuunin, to help in bringing the now blood deprived and unconscious individuals to the hospital for immediate treatment.

The sole blond prankster stealthily escaping from the confines of the academy while he still could. Quickly making his way out of the academy gates, and then swiftly heading for his favorite eating spot, to devour an army's worth in ramen.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

.

.

**Heaven Is But A Dream**

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_**Chapter 3**_

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He sat depressed and dissatisfied once again on the playground swings of the village's Military Academy. He had once more failed to pass the Graduation Exam which would have permitted him to become a genin, or more like get a more real chance at officially joining the village military, becoming a protector of those that needed protection and those that he wanted to protect. This was to be his third and final try at joining the force, and he had once again failed, this time on a technicality, but the blow that struck him the hardest was that the instructor that failed him wasn't one of those supposedly unbiased members of the teaching staff, it was a man he admired, looked up to, even saw as an older brother. Umino Iruka had been the one to deny a path to his dream to open up. But he should have already expected that things would never be easy or simple for him, after all heaven is but a dream.

His other instructor at the military or ninja academy walked up to the swing that he was silently sitting on formerly amidst the heated and hateful glares that had been sent his way by the villagers as they picked up their children, children that had met the requirements to be considered into the program, the real program, the one where lessons were no longer taught in the classroom but in the field.

Naruto was by no means a stranger to learning from life as he spent day after day learning one more lesson after another. While one may fear what they don't understand and cause that fear to eventually grow to hate, he knew that he would not be fearing the source of his immortality, that ghostly golden glow that creeped out just as much as that crimson mist the spread around his inner coils always ready to preserve his life.

"Hey.." Mizuki said as he sat on the swing beside the one Naruto was using, "You know...I know you feel betrayed, but Iruka was just doing his job. He actually really cares about you. This is just his way of protecting you from the shinobi lifestyle.."

"I know..." Naruto said as he truthfully did know that Iruka did generally care for him more than any of the other students, the man even went out of his way to make sure that Naruto was alright on most occasions, he was one of the few villagers that seemed to have gotten past their hate for him if the man ever had hate for the blonde that is.

"But listen," Mizuki said, "If you really want to become a genin, there's this secret exam that very few people know about."

Naruto looked up from his depressed position at the assistant sensei, there was some hope in his eyes at the possibility of his still passing and walking further down the path of reaching his dreams. Here was a chance, his final chance of becoming more than what he was, as well as moving closer to knowing what life had in store for him, what destiny had in store for him, what the crimson energy and ghostly golden mist, those two strange energies that always seemed to save him were.

"_I'll do anything_," Naruto said softly, thinking that if he said his wish louder that it would not come to pass like so many other wishes that he had made in the past, all they got him were beatings and reminders that not even the Shinigami would let him die. The God of Death himself dragging him kicking and screaming back to the mortal coil, to the realm of life, to the living world.

"Alright," Mizuki said noting the hope in the blonde's words, "I believe you, here's what you have to do," there was no backing out of his plan now, he went on to tell the blonde what he needed to do as well as shared what information about the security of the Hokage tower that he knew there was at night. He also warned the blonde about the possible presence of the Hokage, the mightiest of all the village protectors being at the tower during the night. He also ordered the boy to meet him in some training ground in the forest that surrounded the village.

The blonde listened attentively for the first time in his life, this was something which he definitely needed if he was to achieve ever a sliver of what dreams he may be able to attain, even for just a momentary happiness he would do this, he would listen to every word. He promised every part of his very being that he would succeed in this, for it seemed that only those thing that required hard work were ever truly worth it, and were the only things that were truly within his grasp.

It was that night, as soon as all offices and stores were finally closed, their businesses for the day over and done with that Naruto decided that it was time to enact his plan, the plan which was helped greatly by what Mizuki had told him. He snuck into the tower like so many times before, of course Mizuki was unaware of that fact, but Naruto had done it all the same. He easily by passed all the guards that the tower had, like he had done many time before. His stealth was unmatched in the village, no one could out hide him when he truly wished to be hidden, and he didn't really know why.

Nothing seemed to truly be impossible for him, all save for that one thing or those things that he could never have, what with what he had been forced into having as a burden at the time of his birth. But everything else seemed to be within his grasp. He could out do most of the most skilled people in the village when it came to running, endurance, stamina, hiding, pranking, and even living. That last part being the most important part.

He snuck through the crawl spaces of the tower, the airducts and vents and the like just to get to the Hokage's office, where he had many times in the past seem the scroll that he was to obtain for his in instructor in order to pass this exam.

He took some wrong turns and learned, seeing is believing after all, that he was not the only one in the village that suffered. Deep beneath the Hokage Tower, as Naruto had actually reached, were holding cells, prison cells, and interrogation rooms. In some of the ones that he had managed to pass through, he had seen the horrors that the village did to their enemies in order to keep it safe.

He was not the only one beaten and insulted and brought near the brink of death of placed on death's door only to be brought back against their will. There were people underneath the village suffered the same agonizing pains as well. Their screams were normally muffled from reaching the rest of the tower due to just how far below ground they were.

Naruto knew that he was not meant to be there, so he went back to completing his objective which was to get the Forbidden Scroll. One that he planned on looking through more for information about himself since no mere orphan, no mere ward of the state, merrited the attention of the Hokage himself. He knew he was different and he had a feeling that the scroll might hold some of the answers of the questions that plagued his mind.

He forced the thoughts of the suffering people found bound underneath and among the very roots of the village. They were not his concern for the time being, he would address their plight when he had reason and right to. He knew the kind of suffering those men and women went through, it was not only the physical or the mental, but the emotional as well. By their being kept captive against their will, they were kept not only away from their very villages, but also from their loved ones.

These were men and women who surely had family waiting for their hopefully safe return, or in some cases simply their return to the village. Even a simple corpse would have sufficed for some people due to or thanks to just how long their loved one had been lost to them.

Naruto was grateful in a sense that when he suffered he knew that he was the only one that was suffering, there was no family or friends that were suffering alongside him. Unlike those people he had seen being tortured down in the depths below the great tree. His loneliness, a blessing and a curse rolled into one. No one really knew the real him, no one had really bothered to find the real him. No one had really cared that much about him.

He exited the ventilation shafts at a point just outside of the Hokage's office, Mizuki did say that the safest way into the office was through the door itself. So Naruto carefully pushed the door open, and tip toed his way inside. His eyes peeled for anyone that could and would try to stop him.

As he crept slowly into the room, he noticed movement at the corner of his eyes and shifted his attention in that direction, only to find the Hokage bent over some drawers seemingly searching for something. It provided the perfect chance of snatching the scroll without getting caught. So Naruto rushed as fast as he could to the scroll which lay leaning against a book shelf and made his way out of the office before the Hokage chanced a glance behind him. Spotting no one, the Hokage returned to his searching for whatever it was that he was searching for.

It must have been quite important and secret for the Hokage not to have any Anbu guards with him in the room at the time. Whatever it was, Naruto silently thanked it as he ran among the shadows of the village on in the direction of one of the desserted, at this time of night, training grounds.

Mizuki had told him that he would simply find him when the time was right. He would be given just enough time to learn one technique from the scroll, and that would be the basis for his passing or his failure for the fourth and last time.

Upon reaching the training field, Naruto read over the first thing in the scroll. Kage Bushin no Jutsu, a clone technique, but as he read through the description he noted that it was unlike the basic one that the academy taught. This one he was certain would be beneficial to his growth as a ninja, and an asset to the village. He would turn a weakness into a strength by the time he mastered the technique.

It only took him a matter of three hours to memorize and master the technique, only when he put his all into something was he able to perform such miracles. He was no genius by far, but when he wanted to do something, he could do it. He just didn't really notice that fact most of the time.

With that chore over and done with, he created a few clones to study the rest of the scroll and see what else he could learn from it, if not now then later on when he had more time. He had been given free reign over what he could learn after all, and Mizuki had only said a minimum of one thing from the scroll and not to look into learning more.

He waited for two or three more hours before deciding that maybe Mizuki had given up on him as well, thinking that he had been unable to complete the secret exam. He rolled up the fully memorized scroll, and hefted it back onto his back, and jumped up into the trees and headed back to the Hokage tower. He planned on returning the scroll to the Hokage since it was only right that he return what he had taken whether or not it was for a test. It wasn't his after all, it was the village's. Even though it did contain hints to as to why he was so despised by his own village. Within the scroll were some secrets about how to seal away demons into containers, mostly human ones.

He put two and two together, and realized that the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him. So many hated him due to the thing that he held at bay each and every day, and since day dared not take him, the soul of the beast could not pass on to the afterlife as well. Both always were forcefully returned.

As he traversed the streets of the village he noted the presence of many members of the village's military forces scouring the village. Whatever it was must have been important to warrant so many of them to be out looking for whatever it was. As he didn't want to distract them from their work, he kept to the shadows and the gray areas of anyone's vision and made it safely to the tower, even reaching the Hokage's office before he was violently flung into a wall by said Hokage himself.

It hurt, but only a little, he had been hurt physically far too many times for something such as that to knock him out or start pleading for mercy.

"...Naruto..." the Hokage spoke in slight surprise and regret for some reason, "Why do you have the scroll?"

"Huh?" Naruto said sounding a bit confused, "Mizuki-sensei said I had to get it as part of the secret graduation exam. He said that I had to take it from the tower and learn at least one jutsu from it..but I guess he doesn't believe in me too..."

Even with how he had been violently flung into a wall, he could still acto so innocent, ignorant and pathetic. It was amazing that the Hokage bought the partial act, the pain hadn't really fazed Naruto at all.

"Well seeing as you managed to steal the scroll behind my back, and even chose to return it," the Hokage said, "I'll promote you to genin. I'll inform Iruka about your passing later."

"Thanks Hokage-jiji!" Naruto said as he tossed the old man the scroll before rushing out of the office as the Hokage called off the search and ordered the capture of Mizuki.

The Hokage too did not believe that Naruto was capable of such a feat as to learn, and even more improbable master, one of the kinjutsu listed and described in the scroll. He chose to promote Naruto due to his sheer abilty to steal something in the presence of the Hokage as well as the ability to evade capture from a village wide search worth of shinobi. Naruto didn't bother showing the Hokage what he had learned, there was no need since the village leader hadn't asked for a demonstration of anything gained.

He left the Hokage tower a whole lot smarter, and with a whole new rank. Something which Mizuki hadn't been expecting when he almost ran into the blonde while on his way to visit one of his contacts with his outside loyalties, he also hadn't received word that he was being hunted down.

"What the hell you brat!" Mizuki shouted, "What are you doing walking around here? Don't you want to become a genin?"

"But you never showed up," Naruto argued, "Hokage-jiji already promoted me anyway, seeing as I managed to steal the scroll while his back was turned and all."

"But were you able to learn a jutsu from the scroll? See that's only way to make it official," Mizuki said, trying to get the blonde into stealing the scroll a second time.

"Yeah," Naruto said, deciding to boast a bit, "I learnt something from it."

"Well then," Mizuki said, he didn't really have a choice anyway since the blonde could now be used to expose his treachery to the village, "I guess that means that you won't be leaving my presence alive. I can't have monsters such as you running around the village with a potentially powerful technique."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto said, slightly confused but not scared of the threat of death, "I'm not a monster!"

"Yes you are!" Mizuki claimed confidently, "You attacked this village , the Yondaime had to sacrifice his life to protect the village from you! Time to face the facts, you ARE the Kyuubi!"

"What?" Naruto said, not really asking the question rather he said it out of shock, a moment of paralysis which gave Mizuki the opening he had been waiting for. He struck Naruto while the blonde was still a bit vulnerable. His blade sang and sliced right through the blonde's neck, effectively severing the head from the body, resulting in a fountain of blood as his reward.

He had done it. He had saved the village. He had finished what the Yondaime had started. He had killed the Kyuubi. He had made Konoha less powerful for his truer master to do with the village as he pleased in the future. He did what so many had failed to do, he had slain the beast, slain a bijuu. He was so happy, he was in so much bliss, that he could have died without a care in the world right then and there.

The gray haired chunin laughed maniacally for a few minutes, mindless as to the arriving Anbu around him, who could all see the fountain spurting from the neck of the still standing upright body of the blonde who's head lay on the ground, his blue eyes unblinking.

It was a terrifying sight to behold even for the hardened veterans that had surrounded the seemingly deceased blonde and the gray haired chunin. They all knew of the high possibility of it happening, of the high chance of survival of the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Terror gripped their hearts at the realization that they really did have a monster living amongst them, one that did not wish them harm, but a monster nonetheless. An unkillable creature whose tenant refused to be put down, refused to be put to rest.

While the Kyuubi may have longed for freedom, it thought of its life as being more important than such a privilege. Should he ever gain freedom once more, then he was sure that his life, or even very existence would cease entirely.

It came out as a whisper, but due to the silence of the day or night no one could really tell anymore.

"_I am Uzumaki Naruto...not the Kyuubi...you tried to kill me...but you failed...I am a genin of Konoha...you tried to kill me...traitors..._" he spoke the words in whispered tones, but there was definitely an edge to them, "_Traitors...traitors to the village...to this village...to my village..._" it was an eerie sight indeed to behold and experince, a decapitated head continuing to speak when normally such things wouldn't even be considered as possible, "_Traitors..._DIE!"

Crimson strings of chakra shot out of the blonde's neck and attached themselves to their other half, the one attached to head, and began to pull the head closer to the body. Even while this was happening, the body was already in motion and moving at a speed unheard of in a fresh graduate of the academy, one of the teen's hands gained a firm grip on the chunin, while the other poked the real monster 19,683 times, his five fingers glowing with a ghostly golden glow, the arm moving too fast for even a Sharingan to have been able to see it move.

There was sound like a zipper being pulled closed, followed by another whisper than an inhuman scream.

"_Hijutsu: Mazo Shindou_," were the whispered words, the name of the jutsu, Masochist Impact, dealing the damage felt through seals onto whatever those seals were touching, 19,683 seals were needed for this to be performed. Mizuki was on the receiving end of what a decapitation and dying felt like, multiplied almost by how many seals were placed on his body.

It was a technique listed in the Forbidden Scroll under many genjutsu, and would only be revealed to one that would be able to use the jutsu and live to tell the tale. Why the Nidaime Hokage had deemed the jutsu worth preserving was anyone's guess, but it was there in the scroll.

The chunin would not die, Naruto had subconsciously seen to that, adding some healing chakra into the mix, while making sure that the last vestiges of his sanity remained intact, the Anbu would still be able to get what they wanted out of him, a mind walk by a Yamanaka would provide them with what they needed. But if they didn't get what they wanted the first time. Well, they'd be very sorry as they would be forced to watch the near vegetable of a man break loose of his chains and disembowel himself as it would prove to be the only way that the Shinigami would willingly take one that had been touched by that golden mist.

The Hokage would be informed of the incident, and would think twice about underestimating Uzumaki Naruto again.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

.

.

**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 4**_

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Most newly minted ninja were gladdened by the fact that they had finally joined the ranks they had worked their young lives for. But not one sun-kissed blonde one, no, his thoughts were on far different things, such as that he would now be able to walk about and learn more about the world without being hindered by forces that he had no control over. Though there were sure to be some obstacles, he would face them all in the pursuit of happiness.

He now lived with the knowledge that the Hokage now knew of his inability to stay dead long, and while the old man felt for the boy, he now feared him a little bit, for who in their right minds wouldn't fear something that couldn't be killed. If Naruto for some reason decided to end Konoha, there would be nothing in the world that would be able to stop him, and if somehow someone would figure out a way to kill the monster, there would be the world to pay, as the ghostly golden mist would see to the world's very final end.

There were other forces in the village that showed a greater interest in the now potential threat that they could do nothing about. Now that they knew that Naruto had this unknown and mysterious power within him, they could only speculate as to what would happen should they move against him. Counted among these people were Shimura Danzo, the one-eyed warhawk that had sought to use the blonde as a weapon once the sealing had been complete, there were also the corrupt council members that sought to use the boy to their own ends. But now none of them dared even think of going against the boy or the Hokage, lest this unknown power be used against them.

After the blonde had met with his team for the very first time, he had been summoned by the Hokage to speak about what he had learned from the village's kinjutsu scroll, while Naruto listened to the proposed restrictions, he chose not to accept them and flat out denied the Hokage's request. He knew his worth to the village, and now that the Hokage knew of his immortality, he knew how to use it to his advantage.

He became Konoha's first suicide ninja, Since he could not be killed the village could afford to send him out on suicide missions or suicide runs without a care in the world for his safety, though the village would refrain from doing that until the boy was a little older and more experience so that his exploits wouldn't bite then in the ass.

The general population of the village was not made aware of Naruto's immortality as there was no need, and the Hokage didn't want to know how the village in general would react to the monster that they had been abusing and trying to get rid off actually being unkillable. Would they continue to try and find more creative ways to end his life or would they cower in fear of him and expect to die any day now once they realize that had Naruto been a real demon then their deaths truly were eminent.

The blonde was placed on Team 7, a genin cell which was lead by Hatake Kakashi, the cyclops with a famously hidden sharingan eye, who was informed of Naruto's immortality. The man was surprised at first and chalked the immortality as a side effect of being the host of the Kyuubi, not that he knew much about jinchuuriki not having been one but only hearing about them as well as hearing that the hosts generally gained something from the beast they held within them.

While he knew he owed his sensei something, he felt that he owed his Uchiha of a teammate more, and with the excuse of the blonde being immortal, he could now focus more on the Uchiha that had been placed on his team along with the top scorer among the kunoichi of their class on his team. It was favoritism in a way, but since he had a student that could simply go into a whole bandit camp filled with S-class nuke-nin without the threat of death looming over his head, he didn't think he needed to worry about training such a nin.

Kakashi met with his team with his same old routine of telling them that he hated them from the get-go and about the real exam as well as the chances of passing by the participants. He also suggested that they not prepare for the test, in a way, by telling them they better not eat breakfast lest they throw up. That in itself was a test, since before any strenuous activity one was expected to eat to have the energy to perform at one's best.

It seemed that only Naruto bothered to not listen to the jounin when it came to eating before the test. He ate what he could find to give him a boost in energy, not that he really needed the boost as he was always energetic and barely needed any rest anyway. Energy-wise he was an energizer bunny on steroids, jutsu-wise he had a library of stolen techniques at his beck and call, though not all of them had been mastered yet, unlike the Kage Bushin and the Mazo Shindou.

He doubted that he would need to use the Mazo Shindou as it had the potential to actually kill the jounin if he, Naruto himself, was not careful.

He had tools a plenty, some of which were stained with his own blood as they had been implements of his many deaths in the past. Ninja had a tendency of leaving their tools after being used, save for things such as swords, and other big things, but not kunai, shuriken, ninja wire, and the like. Those things tended to be left behind after being used.

With his usual suit stained with too much of his own blood, he had been forced to chose a more serious outfit. He kept some spare clothing that most people simply ignored as it didn't fit into their view of him. Such as his short sleeved black shirts, or his regular colored sets of pants ranging from forest green to dark blue, to even black. He also had a few sets of shoes and sandals of other colors aside from green, black, and blue, though they were mostly only used for when he decided that he felt different on a certain day.

Most of his extra sets of clothes had been things he had found in the trash and fixed up though.

When he was ready for the test, he went off in the direction of the training ground that his team had been told that they were to meet for the test. He didn't really sleep as he had spent the whole of the night, after getting prepared, rigging the training ground full of traps. He ate a few cups of instant ramen while his clones did the booby trapping for him, before joining in on the trapping himself.

By the time that his teammates arrived for the test, he had rigged the whole of the training ground with so many traps that he had actually lost count of the number of things he had placed in there. He promised himself that he would clean up after the exam, the plan for that being that he he would send in an army of clones to find all of the traps either by normally finding them and dismantling them or by setting them off. Either way was fine with him.

He didn't mind his teammates as they arrived, he simply sat under the shade of a tree and waited for the perpetually late sensei to arrive and begin the test. Begin the real test.

"...begin," Kakashi announced the start of the exam, two of his genin ran off to hide as expected of them. Naruto on the other hand remained out in the open.

"I was expecting more from you, Naruto," Kakashi said, "Now be a good little genin and go hide, plan, strategize.."

"How about no," Naruto stated, then ran at the jounin something the jounin only slightly expected. Blocking Naruto's first punch and delivering a blow of his own was a mistake. Naruto had no problems with getting hurt, as it simply made him stronger, or specifically made one of his attacks stronger. It was really a build up thing if he chose it to be, he stored all the pain he felt, all the damage he received, before using that suicide technique.

His teammates watched as their sensei mercilessly beat the relentless Naruto to a near pulp, the blonde not really minding or really feeling the pain after having experienced so much worse so many times in the past. The jounin wasn't going to kill him, just put him in the hospital for his supposed arrogance, and so that he would learn the difference between a genin and a jounin. But Naruto knew the difference thanks to numerous encounters.

The blonde also knew the difference between a man that feared death and a man that didn't care at all about it, or even cherished it, wanted it to happen. Wanted to escape from the perpetual nightmare that was life.

He continued to attack his jounin-sensei, he did not stop even for a moment, as he needed to wear out the silver haired man, enough that the man's senses would be dulled to the many traps lain out about the training ground. Many explosions and pointy things awaited the man and anyone dumb enough to activate one of the traps.

Naruto led the jounin to a field of potential fiery death, it was a tribute in a sense worthy of the Uchiha as Sasuke thought of it as. The whole of the seemingly empty clearing exploded into a sea of flames, the very ground itself was turned into molten mud due to the sheer heat from the flames that burned Naruto and tried to burn the jounin. Kakashi decided that it was probably not a good idea to underestimate the genin that had far too many attempts on his life to count.

He retreated as best as he could, but the explosions of fire just continued him. A hail of shuriken and kunai was his only warning that he was entering something just as dangerous as the flames.

Sasuke had set up a less complex and dangerous trap for the jounin, and it had inadvertently activated all of Naruto's metal death traps. It began to rain metal and it took all of Kakashi's well earned years of combat experience to get himself out of harm's way relatively unscathed. He even had the clarity of mind to summon up several Kage Bushin to save his other students the possible deaths they would get to experience if he left them around the training ground while Naruto went on his semi-rampage.

By saving his students, Kakashi showed Sakura and Sasuke just how weak they were in comparison to him, as well as how sane they were in comparison to Naruto who actually looked like he enjoyed getting hurt.

"I feel alive!" Naruto decided to shout, in the shinobi world it was somewhat of a common or good thing or sign that when someone was kind of insane that someone was strong, even strange or weird or simply quirky behavior was a sign of strength, so if one was insanely unafraid of death then that must translate into something too.

"Naruto! How am I supposed to test your teammates?" Kakashi called out from far enough away from the sea of flames and the heavy metal rain, the sharp things continued to pepper the ground with their sharpness, while the sea of flames continued to burn and boil to the point that it looked like some kind of uncontrollable forest fire, '_Come at me with the intent to kill..sheesh..I didn't think he'd take it that seriously!_'

"Come out! Come out! Wherever you are SENSEI! I have bells to get!" Naruto screamed, making himself seem even more insane than was necessary, "Teamwork my ass! You think they'll willingly work with me now? Well? Do ya!"

"_What is he talking about sensei?_" Sakura whispered as she didn't want to catch the attention of the insane genin burning down and cutting up the training ground, she was more than frightened, had she known about the Kyuubi she would have already killed herself to save Naruto the trouble of ending her existence himself.

"_Yeah, Kakashi-sensei...and how'd the dobe get to be this strong?" _Sasuke asked, while he wanted to become strong enough to kill his brother he didn't see how being strong in the same sense as the insane genin would be good for his mental health and descendants, he found a reason to fear an idiot.

"_Well...its not my place to say how he got strong...or insane..that's his story to tell...and I'm starting to think that I should have taken the Hokage seriously when he said that Naruto doesn't care about dying.." _the jounin said, "_He's talking about the real purpose of the exam, the real exam within the exam. Look underneath the underneath and all that. This test was supposed to test your teamwork, ever heard of a one man genin cell? No? That's cause there aren't any. Konoha is famous for its teamwork. We work as a team, as a single unit. There is no 'I' in 'team'._"

"_But there is an 'I' in 'insane',_" Sakura decided to note.

Before their conversation could go any further an explosion shook the entire village, it came from a few meters around them. Then the searing heat of the fires that sprung up from the explosion reached them. It felt like they were being cooked alive. Something Naruto had actually experienced in his youth, not that anyone wanted to eat him, just cook him until he died.

"_If he wants to die so much, then why not just end our suffering and end his life,_" Sasuke suggested, he was tired of all the running they ended up doing as Naruto came at the jounin with enough intent to kill to probably level the entire village. He also didn't want to die, which was a distinct possibility.

"NARUTO STOP!" the running and hiding members of Team 7 heard the yell of the Hokage himself, and Kakashi sensed that an entire platoon of Anbu were with the leader of their village as a precaution.

"Oh alright," team 7 heard Naruto say and suddenly everything vanished, the flames, the heat, and the raining metal, it was as if it had all been just an illusion, at least until they noted that all the damage remained and Kakashi's hair was a little bit on fire.

The Hokage approached Kakashi as he made himself visible, while still gripping a kunai in one hand and mourning the loss of his porn as it was one of the first things that Naruto blew up.

"Didn't I explicitly tell you not to tell Naruto to come at you with the intent to kill?" the Hokage scolded the jounin in front of his genin and the Anbu, "The next time I tell you something about Naruto, I hope that you will do it. Even if I tell you to dress in drag and woo Maito Gai," he then rounded on Naruto, "And Naruto! I told you not to do anything crazy! The payment for the damages to this training field deducted from your pay. Be more responsible will you. How do you expect to become Hokage one day if you act so irresponsible. Your team won't be the only one using this training field you know."

"Hai Hokage-sama/-jiji," Kakashi and Naruto replied, sorry for their actions, somewhat.

"Good," the Hokage said, "Now Kakashi pass your team, so that we can all move on with our lives and Naruto can clean up whatever else he has laying around the training ground."

"Alright," Kakashi said and faced the genin, "I don't really trust any of you yet, or feel that any of you really have what it takes to become true assets to the village, but I'll pass you. So congratulations, you are now official genin of Konoha, wear your forehead protectors with pride. Now scram!"

Sasuke and Sakura definitely knew when they were being dismissed, while Naruto knew enough to stay behind and create an army of clones to locate and disarm all the traps that his clones had placed in the field while the Anbu watched from the background and while the Hokage made sure that he didn't pull anything funny stuff and simply decide to blow the training ground sky high since such a thing, even the plantlife could just be conveniently replaced.

'_Too late,_' the Sandaime couldn't help but think as he and his Anbu high tailed it out of there just before Naruto's blood and guts came raining down on them from afar and before the mushroom cloud became visible to the entire nation.

The Hokage ended up vowing to kill the Yondaime Hokage once they saw each other again. No matter how impossible it would be, he would find a way to kill the blue eyed blonde Kage for leaving such a catastrophic legacy behind.

The likelihood of Naruto saving the world was smaller in comparison to the possibility of his destroying the world in his search for Heaven.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

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_**Chapter 5**_

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Team 7 didn't train, they went on mission, it was the only training the normal members of the team were sure that Naruto couldn't kill them accidentally or intentionally. They painted fences, weeded gardens, babysat brats..but quit babysitting after Naruto in all his insane wisdom tried to kill the kids after they almost ended up dying in his presence while he could not stay with the Shinigami for all of eternity. They did the dreaded Tora mission several times, actually most of Naruto's savings came from that mission as the Hokage decided to punish the genin by having him perform it multiple times, the pay remaining the same, but at the same time his time in catching the thing grew shorter and shorter.

Eventually the cat stopped running away from its owner since it grew more scared of Naruto than it did the torture that its owner bestowed upon it. The cat would endure the tough love as opposed to enduring Naruto hunting for its blood not really caring about getting hurt in the process. Cats were not meant to run as fast as explosive seals exploded behind it in rapid succession resulting in several more training ground needing repairs and forests needed replanting.

The Hokage eventually had to find some other way to punish Naruto, in a sense, for all the destruction he had been causing lately. He theorized that Naruto missed his meetings with the death god that he was trying to provoke someone into actively going after his life again.

The village no longer dared take pot shots at him since he now had the right to kill them for attacking him if ever they did. And an official was more dangerous than some demon, that they assumed was mortal and had a very advanced healing factor, that clung to life with a willpower to match the Will of Fire itself in intensity.

"Alright! I've had enough of these boring D-rank missions!" Sasuke suddenly exploded, not into itty bitty pieces, but in the other sense, when one gets fed up with boring and simple things unbecoming of his station in life as the last Uchiha, royalty in the village to the point that he supposedly shat gold, "I, as an Uchiha, demand a higher ranked mission! I demand better! I deserve better!"

Normally when someone decided to tell the Hokage what to do, they were hurt, and they were hurt bad before being fed to Naruto, figuratively speaking of course. But the Hokage was getting fed up with dealing with Naruto everyday, more problems arose when Naruto's life got a bit easier. The lack of assassination attempts and beatings caused the blonde to go into some form of withdrawal, which caused the blonde to cause problems and paperwork for the already tired and old old man.

"Do you think your team is ready for higher missions?" the Hokage, deciding to act professional, asked Kakashi for his opinion on the matter.

"I think..as a team my team will never be ready for any mission higher than D," Kakashi honestly said, "But a the same time, since I'm stuck with them. They should be good enough. If we happen upon something that even I can't handle, I could just cut Naruto loose. That should do the trick should we face an organization made up of S-class nuke-nin for whatever reason that we could chance upon one."

"I'm so glad to hear you say that," the Hokage said, "But at the same time..maybe I should send you out on one more mission within the village," he rummaged through a pile of A-rank missions, something which caused Iruka to go a bit ballistic in his own right since those missions were not for wet behind the ears genin, then the Hokage tossed Kakashi a scroll, "I'd normally have a squad of jounin perform that mission, but I fear that Naruto might cause the end of the world as we know it if I don't send him to do a mission that he could let off some steam.."

"I get to blow stuff up?" Naruto excitedly asked, interrupting the Hokage's conversation with Kakashi.

"Thank you for the interruption," the Hokage told the blonde genin, "Yes and no. The mission is an annual extermination mission. Your team is being sent into the Forest of Death to reduce the number of dangerous bigger tan normal beasts that inhabit it. Specifically of the arachnid variety."

"So..I get to kill things?" Naruto asked.

"Oh yes," the Hokage said, "I'm placing you and your team in a situation where the chance of getting killed is very high. Of the seven jounin that I usually send or teams of jounin for that matter on some years, at least three of them have to stop being ninja while two stop breathing the breath of life permanently. You could potentially die on this mission. How does that sound?"

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS MISSION!" Naruto shouted so loud that all of the village heard it and cringed, "This is the bestest birthday present ever! And its not even my birthday yet! whoopie!"

The blonde teen bounded out of the door and headed in the direction of said training ground and didn't take any ninja tools with him. He actually discarded his clothes the moment he went beyond the fence as he knew that the likeihood of him loosing his clothes to his opponents was very high. He had forgotten about his team completely, what with the chance of him dying and seeing the shinigami being so high. It wasn't a chance that he would willingly pass up.

"Are you sure that that was a good idea Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked after they heard the first explosion coming from the very training field that the rest of team 7 was expected to go on or thought that they were going to have to go on, "I mean the village really could use the last Uchiha..and me..and Sakura too!"

"Oh forget about it," the Hokage said, "Its really just Naruto I'm sending on the suicide mission. Your real mission will be to escort and protect a bridge builder and only return once the bridge has been completed. I'll send Naruto on your tail once he's done trying to get himself killed."

"How can you be so careless when it comes to his wellbeing?" the jounin asked, Iruka had left the mission office to chase after Naruto and didn't relly pay attention once the Sandaime shushed him.

"Yeah," Sasuke pipped up his curiosity, he was worried that the Hokage saw them all as his playthings to do with as he wished, if that was the case then he needed to get out of and away from the village to find somewhere that he could get stronger and live to actually kill his brother.

"Oh its just Naruto," the Hokage said, "If you knew the things I do, you wouldn't care even if I were to summon the shinigami and have said deity consume his soul."

"That's pretty harsh Hokage-sama," Sakura said, "Sure he's annoying and insane, but I don't think he'd deserve such a fate."

"He might not deserve it," the Hokage seriously said, "But he'd welcome it with open arms. Its not my place to tell you what kind of childhood he had, but know this...he seeks heaven above all things in the world."

While it wasn't the wisest of things to do when it came to Naruto, the Sandaime thought that maybe he could help the blonde find heaven on earth and not have to seek it from the afterlife. He thought that he could provide the blonde with the heaven that he so dreamed off but realistically would be unable to obtain.

He might one day fall in love, but what if his love was for one that had already been taken, whose heart already belonged to another or whose hand had already been promised to another.

What if the friends and close ties he managed to make and forge in this life were to unexpectedly die, by his hand or at another's. The blonde couldn't or wouldn't be able to see them again, or be with them for the remainder of eternity what with him being as immortal as he now was.

There would always be those that viewed him as the demon that had attacked their home, there would always be those that viewed him only as tool a weapon to be used on the village's enemies. There would always be those that didn't see him at all, and only saw an object, one that could simply be thrown away.

While the Hokage couldn't offer the blonde a loving family, a loving home, an eternal friend, or the chance to be normal. He could try his best to make the blonde happy and see that someone cared for him. He had many regrets, many mistakes made in his long lifetime. He had lived past his prime, and lived past his successor even. He had done many wrongs to many people. He had failed many times.

But he sought to right most of those wrongs, his penance being his effort to see to it that Naruto would manage to get the chance to even catch a glimpse of true heaven before the shinigami took his soul and left Naruto in the world to fend for himself and seek out tha which he sought on the road less traveled by.

For now the Hokage was forced to settle to send the blonde false hopes and almost empty promises, these minor possibilities and meetings with the shinigami were the only things that the Hokage believed would be appreciated by the blonde. Perhaps one day, one brush with death, the shinigami would finally show pity on the blonde and take his soul. But the village leader suspected that that day would never come to pass, that there were forces at work here that even the gods feared to mess with.

The Hokage waved away Team 7 after they had been introduced to the client, one Tazuna. The man was clearly an alcoholic, something also seemed off with the drunk. The Hokage hoped that team 7 would be able to deal with whatever surprises they would come across while Naruto was out in the Forest of Death getting himself killed over and over.

The Hokage had stationed one of his Anbu, Tenzo, to stand guard outside of the training ground to keep anyone that wished entry to stay out of it. He didn't want to subject anyone, even Mitarashi Anko, to the sight of a blonde genin getting rupped to shreds by the giant spiders that the blonde had been sent out to exterminate or reduce the population of to manageable levels.

He could imagine as the blonde boy's body was ripped to shreds, as blood and guts painted the dark green forest crimson with the liquid and his entrails. He could imagine the blonde's gray matter splattered on the ground and on the trunks of trees, spiders feasting on his ever regenerating body. His soul leaving and being forced back into the fully healed and moved mortal shell.

He could imagine as small spiders gouged out Naruto's eyes with their tiny pincirs for them to consume and seemingly grow stronger. He could imagine the Kyuubi's power leaking into the spiders causing them to go into an even wilder killing and feeding frenzy, and causing Naruto to become even more debased.

There were many thoughts running through the Hokage's mind as he began to actually think of Naruto's fate. One of his first instincts was to don his battle gear and run off and reinforce the blonde he saw as a kind of grandson, the kind that he personally wished to help commit suicide. But he disregarded that thought as he remembered why he had sent off that one experienced genin to his potential deaths.

No matter how big of a mess or how big of a pool of mush and blood the blonde made on the ground or the trunks of the trees. No matter how impossibly dead the blonde would end up becoming in the passing hours and possible days, the Hokage doubted that the blonde would stay permanently dead. No matter how many times the boy's skull was crushed, his bones irreparably shattered, his spine severed. The boy would ressurect himself unintentionally, he would regenerate, and rejuvenate himself. He would come back and kill some more spiders and they in turn would turn him into human paste once again.

The cycle would repeat itself over and over until only a small number of the beasts remained.

He really didn't wish for Anko to witness even a little of it, that woman had already suffered enough both from the village itself and from the betrayal of her teacher Orochimaru. It was unfortunate that she managed to get past Tenzo who in a way failed in his duty to prevent her from investigating the cries of ecstasy coming from her beloved training ground.

The woman had the ill luck to almost get decapitated and disemboweled as she entered the part of the forest where a large amount of killing intent was emanating from. She was met with the sight and had to dodge the lunges, pincers, and web shots, from demoinized giant spiders. At he center of the clicking clump of chittering and killing spiders was the form of what she thought to be a badly made blood clone, but further inspection, as she was running, jumping, and avoiding death at every turn, she found it to be a forehead protector wearing and naked genin that was clearly Uzumaki Naruto.

She'd seen a lot of death, blood, guts, and gore, in her lifetimes especially while she was still apprenticed under the traitorous snake summoner and sannin Orochimaru, but none of that prepared her for the sight of the constantly reforming bone, muscles, and flesh that happened right before her very eyes.

It was too much even for her, she never knew that such a small body could contain so much blood. She also noticed that the forest floor seemed to be far too high to be normal. After managing to use a Doton jutsu, she found out why it seemed to be so high, they weren't fighting on the forest floor anymore, but on a large pile of dead bodies, both human and spider. There was just too many body parts laying about for her to find out who else had died. But after seeing the Kyuubi jinchuuriki continue fighting even after his head had been sliced off and eaten by a contingent of spiders, she couldn't help but think that she had finally died and was in hell for her past crimes of helping her former sensei in his sick experiements on children, including herself.

She was shoved out of her thoughts by a spider smashing into her body, pinning her to one of the trees, her cry of pain catching the attention of some of the unoccupied and recuperating spiders drawing them to her. The dawning horror of her shame at showing pain in such a precarious situation both sickened her, about her lack of professionalism, and caused her to panic more than the bathed in blood blonde that was taking on the spiders like some barbarian out of the stone age.

She didn't want to die regretting her own involuntary cry of pain which inadvertently sent her to her death, but that looked like what was about to happen to her. She even saw what must have ben flashes of the shinigami coming to take her soul.

Of course she didn't know that the death god was just there to make sure that Naruto's soul kept getting shoved back into his body, which was also given some time to recover and attack and not simply lay there and provide the spiders with an everlasting source of nutrition.

She thought that it was her time to die, die a most painful and agonizing death for her past crimes. She was sure that her death would bring some of the villagers some sort of satisfaction, even some of her comrades in the military would rejoice upon her passing. She readied herself and even tried to get out from under the dead spider that pinned her to the tree, her chakra enhanced strength lacking what was needed to shove away the mass of bodies that had followed the first one.

Now the end of her semi-miserable life was about to end and she was helpless to do anything to stop it from happening, she didn't even think of actually calling for help, but if her scream was any indication Naruto should have already been made aware of the oddity that had stumbled upon his mission ground.

She closed her eyes as the pincers of death moved ever closer to her. She accepted her fate, and if she were to be saved by whatever force that had nothing at all to do with her, she would thank it profusely before killing it for not saving her sooner. That was how she operated after all.

She was indeed saved, it all happened within an instant in true ninja fashion. Swift and deadly. Painless too. She didn't know what had happened really. One moment she was about to be painfully torn to shreds by the spiders that were supposed to be gotten rid of by the annual jounin teams, then the next moment she found herself still stuck between the dead spider and the tree trunk but without the noise of battle or the sound of nearing and impending doom looming over her.

There was silence, the silence which she had grown accustomed to while she spent her time within the confines of the training ground she oh-so-loved.

After a few minutes of not feeling like she was being ripped apart into manageable bite sized pieces, she chanced a glance at her surroundings. Opening her eyes was the only way that she knew that she could be sure that she was indeed alive and that the spiders had grown some more brains and were only taunting her, lavishing her with mental torutre that she didn't think she actually deserved.

She found herself still stuck between a tree trunk and a very heavy spider. But what had changed was the lack of movement from the other spiders. She was surprised out of her wits when the spiders that looked to be still as statues right in front of her were pulled away by an assortment of ethereal chains made out of a ghostly golden mist. With them out of the way, no longer blocking her vision, she found herself unable to do anything other than gape at the figure of her rescuer, or at least the dismembered and reforming form of he who had deemed her worthy of being saved.

It was none other than Naruto, still naked as the day he was born, and not ashamed that some random purple haired chick was checking him out or staring at him in abject terror or just some plain and simple old school fear. It wasn't everyday that several puddles of goo moved on their own accord, attached by near invisible strings of crimson chakra pulling them along and sewing everything back to the way they originally were, or as close to that but stronger, as possible.

The process was slow moving, but since Naruto had experienced it so many times, it didn't hurt as much as it did the first time, nor did it hinder him from doing a couple of things, like moving things around using the ghostly golden energy that scared the shinigami enough times to have the deity kick him back into his body, the less contact with the mist for the deity the better.

There was no real method to the madness playing out right before Anko's very eyes, it didn't start with the reformation of bones followed by muscles or simple tissue then flesh. No. All things happened at more or less the same time. A set of bones reformed in a leg, the skull reset itself on the top of the structure, the spine floated waiting for things to reattach themselves to it. Blood flowed and was pumped out of the reformed and beating heart making the process of rejuvenation quicker. Skin formed over some parts even before muscle and bone were back to existing in those places.

A single eye ball watched the whole thing go about as if it was normal for a body that had been torn asunder to simply reform itself. It took a few moments, but Anko had a sinking feeling in her gut that the process could move so much faster and that Naruto was just making it take longer for some unfathomable reason.

She remained as she was with a slack jawed expression as she watched the blonde reform. Horrible thoughts overrode her rational thinking when the ghostly chains that she had seen pull the dead spiders from in front of her reappeared, they burst forth without breaking the skin of one of the genin's arms. There were ten of them in total, ten chains that could do who knows what, and while some kinky thoughts played themselves out in her mind, she was more scared for her life and sanity now than any other point in her life.

The chains shot forth, heading in her general direction, she feared the worst and closed her eyes once more. She felt the great weight of the spider be removed from her, releasing her from its uncomfortable hold. So she opened her eyes again, and watched as the carcas was flung off into other parts of the forest by the chains, then she watched as they dematerialized into a clear mist before that too vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.

It was by this time that the genin that had been battling the spiders and had saved her unlucky ass had finally become whole again, and very much alive. Unfortunately for him and his beliefs that is. The Shinigami had once again denied him eternal slumber or peace from a world that he sometimes desperately wanted to no longer be a part of.

"What the.." she said getting out of her horror induced shocked state and getting back her more tomboyish personality, "What the hell! What the hell! What in the name of Kami was that? What happened? What are you?"

She was clearly freaking out, Naruto understood her plight. He'd probably act in the same manner as she was had he been in her sandals. It was an expected turn of events still, and Naruto had a feeling that the Hokage would be missing this jounin, so he couldn't do some of the things he had learned from the Forbidden Scroll to her to ensure her silence about his immortality and state of mind that was already lightyears away from suicidal and emo.

She clearly didn't have what it took to deal with such a delicate situation. Whoever trained her clearly missed a few things, or intentionally neglected to teach her certain things thinking that it would be improbable that she would come across something like him.

"Are you quite finished yet?" Naruto asked as he took a seat on what was now a forest floor covered by countless dead giant spiders, "I can wait all day for you to calm down. So take as much time as you need to wrap your mind around what you saw me do, as well as I guess coming to terms with almost perishing at the mandibles of overgrown pests."

She calmed down after hearing his emotionless and unsympathetic to her plight voice.

"What the hell was a genin doing fighting those things? Several jounin a year die at their mandibles you know!" she shouted the last part just to make herself feel better and more in control of the situation.

"Jiji offered the job to my team, though I guess he really only gave it to me," Naruto said, "Let me let off some steam. Cut loose, stop letting the pressures of the world get me too down. It also gave me the chance to feel quite alive and really wanting to gut the Shinigami for not taking my soul yet.." he then noticed that he was actually freaking her out by what he was saying more than anything, and with a monotone voice too, it was way past creepy, "Sorry..for freaking you out and all that. I'm not dead, you're not dead. We're both not dead. You not being dead is all that matters, aside from the fact that I finished my mission and should probably report to the old man about it.."

"I see," she said, not particularly calm about anything, but clearly trying to hide the panic she was feeling. A small part of her actually believed that the Kyuubi had done something, it might have gotten out or something and was torturing her for whatever sick reasons it had for doing such things, or something like that. Or she was really dead now. She died, and was facing the hell that had been picked out for her.

"I don't think you do," Naruto calmly said and walked up to her before several of his clones phased into existence behind him, he motioned for two of his clones to take the distressed special jounin to the hospital, luckily his clones remembered to transform some clothes for themselves.

The special jounin let herself be led away and eventually carried the rest of the way since she started freaking out again as she recalled what she had seen. The clones had been forced to subdue her by knocking her out cold. They noticed the more intense glares they had been receiving as he rushed through the village with their charge. They were perceptive, just as their creator was, they knew there was something wrong. So one of them ducked into an alleyway and took on the form of some random average looking person that could fit in anywhere, and asked around what all the glares were about.

He found out about how Anko was treated, as well as her name of course, and her occupation and rank in the military. He knew not to take pity on her as he didn't want some for himself either. He dispelled to make his master know of the turn of events and caused his brother to leap up onto the rooftops and head for the Hokage Tower instead of the hospital.

The Hokage was informed of the mission's success, and was also given Anko for safekeeping or treatment, whichever was needed. After being told about the C-rank mission that team 7 had been given and the last known coordinates and general direction that the team was headed the clone was dismissed and Naruto knew what he needed to do next.

Before leaving the village, fully clothed, of course, in shinobi shozoku, the more traditionally depicted and famous form of attire of shinobi. He'd been saving them for a long time, for an occasion such as this. He didn't need a change of clothes to be brought with him as he had his version of the transformation technique that he could rely upon to get himself a fresh outfit.

He sealed all of his tools into storage seals he had placed on his clothes, the knowledge of the art had been passed onto him by the golden mist, along with a few other things that couldn't kill him but would be quite useful to him.

He signed out of the village before leaving by the front gate, and didn't look back. He felt the glares and knew that there were people that wished he would not return, or at least there would be people doing such and thinking such had they known that he had left. The chunin guards, those two that were always given gate guard duty, only realized that it had been the blonde that had just left after reading the name in their log book.

It was Naruto's first experience of the outside world of the real real world, and the many things that he would be facing during his rather lengthy career, for he knew that he would be living for a very long time unless he found a way to find heaven and be rid of whatever had cursed him with immortality.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

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_**Chapter 6**_

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Arriving at the small port town that had a bridge that was under construction, Naruto knew that he had found the correct place. That he had found his destination and the place where he would be finding his team along with their client.

He sought out the home of the client, the bridge builder whose description he had received, he found the old man and refused to approach the man during the day choosing to wait until he had the cover of darkness to meet with his team. A team that didn't look like it was doing very well since the jounin of the team was bedridden and more than a few injuries, his genin teammates looked like they had been through hell and had barely escaped with their lives. Luckily for Konoha's reputation the client was uninjured other than a few scrapes.

He knocked on the door while still keeping his identity hidden behind his black facemask. It wouldn't do if one of their enemies, for surely there were some seeing as his team was quite injured, found out what he actually looked like. The door was opened by a cautious Sakura, the pink haired girl had witnessed some of the horrors that her career had to offer, she now knew first hand that things were no longer just fun and games.

"Who is it?" Sakura asked.

"Naruto," Naruto told her through the wood of the door.

"How do I know its really you?" she asked, apparently she was the only one awake at this time of night and had decided to show a bit of caution, nearly seeing her teammates and herself killled must have really changed her.

"I set the training ground on fire just to pass our exam," Naruto replied, truthfully no one would say such a thing, even if it was real.

"I believe you," Sakura said, then opened the door only to see the darkness of the outside, she sensed something move inside the house and shut the door for her, turning around from the door she found Naruto standing before her and pulling down his mask and hood.

"Good thing you believed me, else I would have slept outside tonight," Naruto said as he finished uncovering his head, "So..care to fill me in on what happened?"

"Well...the client lied about the mission," Sakura told him, "He's got Gato of Gato Shipping Industries after his head all thanks to this bridge that supposed to bring hope to the people of Wave. So we're dealing with some A-class nuke-nin that Kakashi-sensei was barely able to hold back while Sasuke and I ran for it with the client. I'm still unsure about how Kakashi-sensei survived though."

"Must have been sheer dumb luck or he manged to catch your foe in a genjutsu or something like that," Naruto said, "Well..I'm here now, so you can go on up and rest or something."

"What about you? You must have been traveling for quite some time, don't you need rest more than I do?" she asked him.

"Not really," Naruto said, "I don't really need sleep anymore. I've also got solid clones watching the house from outside. So if anything tries anything funny with the house or its occupants, well..I'll know in advance and we'll have enough time to assess the threat. Ok?"

"Ok," she said and went up to bed, leaving Naruto to create some clones to prep the outside of the house for any kind of attack as well as prepare his sea of flames to make a comeback should the client's family need such a marvelously insane protection.

To wittle away the hours that he spent that night guarding the client, client's family, and his team, Naruto decided to build up his pain reserves, the juice that gave his Mazo Shindou it's kick. He'd used up everything he had manged to store up just to save Anko in the Forest of Death from spidery death.

The reason why the situation went from impending doom for the special jounin to relatively safe was because Naruto had created a whole mess of clones who all applied the seals necessary for the technique on around 90% of the spiders, before he had them dispell and he activated the technique. It was that simple really. But the pain...it was going to be a long night.

By the time the other occupants of the house woke up, Naruto was still standing guard by the door, but this time anyone that walked up to him would notice that he kept shoving a kunai through his heart. It was rather sickening and the young grandson of the client ran for the docks of his home and threw up several times before running to the bushes to continue his vomiting as he noticed that the water was stained crimson and there were actual sharks in the water eating up the human body parts that were floating in the water. All courtesy of Naruto's training and restocking of pain supplies.

"Yo," Naruto greeted Sasuke as the dude with a duck butt hairdo walked down the stairs only to gape as he watched Naruto shove the kunai through his heart and even pulled it out once with the heart attached and still beating, Sasuke then copied Inari, followed by Sakura, Tazuna, and Tsunami. Kakashi was still too busy acting like the bedridden jounin that he was to have joined in on the festivities.

When everyone was much calmer and somone managed to get Naruto to stop trying to kill himself, Naruto was filled in with a more detailed report on what had happened on the mission without him so far by Sasuke. He then went up to speak with their jounin in charge of them and the mission to get whatever details Sasuke might have missed, then went back down to tell everyone else what task he had been assigned as a member of the team.

"...so Kakashi-sensei said I'm to do as I see fit and make sure you guys," he motioned to all of them, "Don't get killed," Naruto stated, "So no need to worry about me dying on this mission. Hundreds of spiders tried to kill me. I'm still here as proof that they failed where countless others had too failed to succeed."

The gathered people decided to simply continue with their lives and mission while ignoring Naruto as best as they could, the blonde failing to realize that his own actions were alienating some of the possible paths to the dream he so longed for. But since he didn't notice, he simply went with the flow of things and had an army of clones ready and waiting to defend teammate and client alike. All of them dressed in the same garments as he was. Black.

It was a day or so later that Kakashi was finally deemed, or deemed himself, well enough to train his genin, the ones that could easily die anyway, Naruto was left to protect Tazuna, his family, and the bridge. Kakashi did of course create a Kage Bushin to oversee Naruto's Kage Bushin taijutsu training. Konoha needed experienced and skilled ninja, even if one of them was technically immortal it wouldn't do if he kept almost dying in a fight. That would reflect poorly on the village, and show that there were kinks in Konoha's quality department after all.

Naruto decided to learn as much as he could from the town, construction project, and people of the small country during his stay as protector for Tazuna. He also helped out with the construction itself by providing the extra man power that Tazuna actually needed to make work move faster, and the bridge came closer to completion faster as well.

He trained on bettering himself, while making himself harder to kill would not be helping his long term goal of finally being able to die and stay dead, it was for the best as his immediate goal had to do with being able to protect his friends and comrades, all things or people that were precious to him to the best of his ability. While it was alright for he, himself to perish, he didn't want anyone else to suffer such a fate until their true and real time to leave the world had come.

Tazuna was happy for the help and what little bit of entertainment that Naruto provided for him and his construction crew, though he did request that Naruto leave his sight and everyone else's when he decided to go all cutting himself up emo-like. He understood and accepted the fact that Naruto kind of needed to hurt himself in imaginable and unimaginable ways, but the sight of the genin performing such acts was more than just unsettling for him or anyone else for that matter.

He added his own little touches to the finished parts of the bridge during its construction, most of those things being seals that he had gained the knowledge of, all of which were of the support category of effects such as strengthening seals, waterproofing seals, rust proofing seals, and other such helpful things that he also decided to apply to his clothing and his tools, as well as some special summoning seals which he placed on his clothes and tools so that he wouldn't need to buy more and so that they wouldn't get lost.

They seemed like simple seals to him, but he had a feeling that to anyone else they were either jibberish or very complex pieces of work that could probably earn him an honest living if not for the fact that a majority of his village didn't like him.

He didn't pay the complexity of it any matter or mind, he simply did what he could, as did not want or like it when others suffered a fate similar to his own. While he was certain that everyone else around him would eventually find lasting happiness and not have to worry as he did, he wanted to help them along the paths they had chosen to finding that happiness.

He made sure that he had clones patrolling the bridge itself, underneath it, under the water using reed pipes for snorkels, and some patrolling the shoreline just in case. He didn't want to chance anything, and when he put his mind to thinking of how many ways people could try and kill him and wreck his home just to spite him, he managed to think up just as many ways and such things when it came to the context of his client being the victim and was able to better prepare for it. Quantity over quality would have to do for the time being until his own quality grew into something worthy of actually being categorized as quality and not sheer dumb luck.

While Naruto did his thing, the rest of team 7 spent their days of the week either training or guarding the bridge builders family or helping said family around the house or with chores. Sakura was simply made to improve on add onto her measly chakra reserves and gain a bit more useful muscle. She took her training seriously, probably even more seriously than Sasuke did since training was already a part of his daily routine.

They learned tree walking, while only Sasuke was permitted to learn water walking, something which Naruto figured out how to do which was how he managed to keep his clones walking under the water. He had some of those drown just to re-experience drowning.

Naruto's hard work and dedication to his job was a little bit inspiring and by his very presence some of the workers that had thought about quitting decided to stay thanks to the added protection and their pride at not wanting to be outdone by some pipsqueak that could life heavy steel bars with one hand and not even look like he was feeling the strain of lifting something so heavy. When Sakura did it once, not one of the men quit and some decided to return.

The bridge neared completion in record time, and only needed some finishing touches when the nuke-nin that attacked team 7 on their wayy to Wave decided to make his move, he had also, just like Kakashi, finally recovered from his battle.

Naruto was made aware of the arrival of the nuke-nin well before the man arrived on the bridge itself, the blonde sent the workers home, but needed the client to remain on the bridge with him as it was probably the safest place for the old drunk to be at the time.

The blonde readied himself for Momochi Zabuza and his accomplice, he surrounded Tazune with a double ring of nine clones and sent a four clone cell off to inform Kakashi of the coming threat to their mission. He also recalled all the clones he had out on partol to get some more reinforcements for the coming battle. He would be needing all the help he could get since he couldn't afford to destroy the bridge of hope that everyone had had a hand in building just to protect the client.

Zabuza and his accomplice arrived with a dense fog rolling in ahead of them, it was the assassin's style after all to come out of a thick mist when his target least expected it.

The nuke-nin was rather surprised when he arrived at his destination to find no workers, but only a bunch of ninja protecting the lone bridge builder. They were all in black and had no distinguishing features other than their black attire. He couldn't tell any of them apart, and not even the chakra sensing abilities of his accomplice could do nothing to tell them apart. He didn't even know if they were clones or not, but supposed that some of them had to be basic bushins or it was all an illusion meant to trick him. He was cautious and unlike his previous fight for the life of the bridge builder he didn't think talking would do any good in this situation.

He sent off his accomplice to make quick work of their target thinking that the black clad ninja were nothing more than mere illusions meant to confuse the two of them. His tool did as ordered and sped through the mist in a weaving snake like way to the bridge builder. None of the clones made a move to stop the rushing ninja, none of them even showed any sign of breathing.

The assassin's accomplice was undobtedly a she, Naruto could tell, his nose could tell as could his eyes. There was also that feminine grace that most kunoichi possessed, and could never really get rid of that the experienced and attention to detail eyes would always manage to catch.

Just as her senbon needle dug itself into the surprised bridge builder's body in a place that would have instantly killed him, and painlessly too, she was the one that gained an equally surprised expression. Her target turned to smoke. Kawarimi by a far enough off clone had saved the drunk and had successfully drawn the attention of the nuke-nin to Naruto and his clone army.

Tazuna appeared a bit of a ways away from his bridge, he was smack dab in the middle of the path leading to the bridge and his house. Team 7 were also conveniently there to serve as his protection. Kakashi promising that nothing would happen to the man before ordering his genin and the three clones to accompany the man to his home and keep him and his family safe while he, the jounin, reinforced their other teammate who was either stalling for time or was still figuring out how to proceed while stalling the nuke-nin from his target.

Haku was the assassin's accomplice's name, and Naruto only found out when he managed to catch a whisper of disappointment from the kiri nuke-nin. She was quick to try and escape from the prison that she had found herself trapped in. The ring of nine clones proved to be more than solid and prepared to deal with such an attack, it was something that Naruto had anticipated for. He had caught her, the one that Kakashi had told him about and doubted that he had the speed to catch up to is she really gave her speed her all.

They may have been clones, but they were all as real as the original and their kunais were just as sharp as the original's own. All nine had a pair of kunai trained on or strategically placed near a part of Haku's body, were she to move then she would be placing herself within the shinigami's grasp.

Since Zabuza now thought that his tool, apprentice, and somewhat adopted daughter was no longer strong enough to defend herself and himself from harm, he immediately discarded her, relieving her of her purpose for living. She lost the will to live at his announcement and gained the instant ire of Naruto. While he could not tell which of them was the real one, he could tell that he had bitten off more than he could chew by dismissing one of his own precious people in such a way.

He had things to do, people to kill, money to collect, and a rebellion to help out with. He could not risk Haku with the now visible possibility of losing her to the enemy. It was his way of protecting her, by pushing her away. But he didn't think that his pushing her away in such a manner would break her as he could clearly see that it did. While he regretted his actions, there was no longer anything that he could do about it. He would now have to live with his decision and actions, for as long as he could.

The killing intent that suddenly filled the air above and around the bridge would have succeeded in suffocating anyone that was not used to such a thing. The desire to kill was so intense that the plant life around the bridge and even in the water under and near the bridge slowly lost their will to live.

A small plume of smoke caught Zabuza's attention as well from beyond the wall of mist that had been forced away by the arrival of the killing intent. The plume of smoke revealed Sharingan no Kakashi in the space that Haku previously occupied. Naruto noticed that she couldn't take his overdose of killing intent and had several clones do a very complex set of Kawarimi jumps to get Kakashi to replace himself with her, just to get her to safety and to get the jounin over to the bridge for his rematch.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked his student.

"To the victor go the spoils, and a discarded tool goes to whoever claims it, yes?" Naruto asked his sensei, he was referring to Haku and laws about servants and slaves, and while frowned upon slavery was not illegal in the world, it was just rarely heard of. He'd give the girl a reason for living, even if it would be as his latest and first acquisition of a human tool.

"What did you do?" Kakashi asked as he kept his eyes trained on the barely visible Zabuza.

"I beat his," nodding in Zabuza's direction, "Tool in a roundabout way. So how about it?"

"You'll have to clear it with the Hokage when we get back," Kakashi said, realizing what Naruto was talking about and wondering why the blonde would think of doing such a thing, it was almost inhumane.

"I can do that," Naruto said, then asked, "You know, he's not just going to stand there all day, and if you win you'll be able to get a kick ass sword out of the fight, plus his bounty, like a bonus for a job well done."

"How can you talk about killing like its a normal thing?" Kakashi asked, as if he had been speaking to someone who didn't really have much of a care in the world when it came to the prospect of his own death, "Nevermind, I forgot who I was talking to."

"What are you two waiting for? An invitation?" Zabuza asked from across the bridge, he didn't like being ignored, "And since I don't like being ignored.." Zabuza didn't really finish his sentence as he used a sudden burst of speed to charge the conversing Konoha-nin, not really surprising the two of them too much as both were replaced or replaced themselves with a nearby clone which took the death blows for them without a complaint or care in the world, "..I'll..start? What the hell? Running away! Some legendary ninja you turned out to be Kakashi!"

"I love my life too much to let you end it!" Kakashi replied as he tried to stab Zabuza with a measly kunai just to further insult the nuke-nin.

"I want to die," both men heard Naruto speak to himself, both men also saw Naruto stab his kunai through his heart, pull out both kunai and still beating heart, before also witnessing the wound close up leaving nothing but a stab wound scar as well as a hole in the blonde's clothes above where his heart would be and had been remade.

Kakashi got an idea from the emo-like moment of it all, while Zabuza decided that it was time to end things as quickly as possible since apparently Konoha bred monsters the likes of which he had only seen in the last war as well as in his former village.

Naruto hadn't been planning on helping his jounin-sensei in such a way, he had only done it to add to the accumulated pain that he could use as he pleased when he used his Mazo Shindou. He had, during his kind of spare time, created some variations to the the technique, additional attacks that worked like their original technique did.

"Oi! Naruto! Keep him busy!" Kakshi shouted from somewhere else on the bridge, "I need some time to prepare my attack!"

"Hai!" all the Narutos shouted in reply, the sheer volume of the shout was a bit deafening, but Kakashi anticipated the volume by plugging up his ears as he shouted his own order. Zabuza was not so lucky since he actually cringed a bit upon hearing just how many solid clones were around him.

'_How many of them are there?_' he knew that the other ninja were not illusions but solid clones, the kage bushin to an outrageous effect, he steadied himself and prepared to be bombarded with attacks from all sides, he also had to figure out how to get to Kakashi before the man could pull out that signature move of his from out of his ass and plunge it into his heart like he believed the cyclops planned on doing after seeing his insane student plunge a kunai through his own and live to tell the tale.

"Plenty enough," three clones attacked from three different angles at the exact same time with kunai, while three more tried to wrap the man in ninja wire.

Zabuza cut the wire and forcibly dispelled the clones without batting an eyelash and without moving from his spot in the very center of the brige. It was like he was in the dead center eye of a storm or a whirlpool with the way the clones around him were stationed, though he didn't know it. They were in a spiralling formation, and when Naruto mentally commanded them to attack, they rushed the nuke-nin from all sides in a kind of noticeable organized manner, spinning the man in place, trying to get him a little bit disoriented.

What puzzled both jounin was why the weather decided to change from just cloudy to a churning storm. There was a storm overhead and when it decided to let lose was at about the same time that Naruto's coordinated clones decided to pull out the chains he had inherited, slightly evolved though, from his mother. The bridge groaned and moaned as the sudden arrival of very strong winds slammed into it with forces that would be more commonly found in a twister. The water under the bridge too churned and forced the foundations of the bridge to shake, quake, and stir.

The clones went from being just an annoying force, to a force to start getting worried about, there was an endless stream of them, and with everything happening around the two jounin and with the blonde, Kakashi was taking quite a while to prepare his jutsu. Naruto supposed that the theatrics had gotten to the cyclops as well.

"Hey sensei! Getcha head in the game!" the real Naruto shouted from wherever he had positioned himself, it provided a distraction that got one clone to get a lucky hit in. Uppercutting Zabuza in the chin and sending him skyward with the tide of the whirlpool of black clad shinobi after the eyebrowless man and keeping him in the air.

Running low on chakra due the constant flow of creation of kage bushin, he tapped into his demon's chakra to continue summoning more of his soldiers into existence. With Kakashi's mind and concentration back on track the thousand chirping birds of his signature technique came to life and Kakashi hoped that Naruto had a plan to send the silver haired man after the nuke-nin who was still somewhat in orbit amidst a spiraling vortex of black that was starting to resemble a black lung dragon playing with its food.

Naruto locked eyes with his jounin-sensei, a message was clearly sent, but on Kakashi's end it arrived as more of a 'get ready'. The silver haired jounin's only warning came as a tug at his navel before he was sent up in an upward spiral via kawarimi with clone after clone. All the way the spectacle of a bright blue ball could be seen traveling skyward to where Zabuza as a mere speck was being continually pushed further skyward. Even Gato saw it from the yacht he was bringing to the bridge to finish things with his not gonna get paid mercenarial help and the Konoha ninja and the bridge builder.

"Raikiri!" Kakashi shouted as he plunged his lightning ball into Zabuza's chest killing the nuke-nin instantly, the man didn't feel any pain. He just died, and fell to the ground. But instead of his body going splat on the concrete it was swallowed up by a dragon made completely out of water. Naruto had asked Kakashi to teach him the jutsu just for this purpose.

Naruto wasn't pissed off anymore and knew that the man must have had his reasons for doing what he did, but at the same time, for the people of Wave the man had to die, and since he didn't think Kiri would appreciate that one of their strongest traitors' body be opened up and studied by a rival village he decided to send the man to the depths of the sea, where a man from the Land of Water might like to end up, instead of six feet below the ground.

Kakashi on the other hand switched placed with yet another clone, or the clone did the place switching, which gave the jounin the chance to appear all cool on the bridge just as the townspeople arrived to see what had been really happening on the bridge, Tazuna and the other genin included.

"That was rather impressive," Gato said as his yacht docked at the side of the nearly completed bridge, he had seen everything, but stilldecided to press onward with his plan, "Bet you don't have the energy to do it again.." he then ordered the many cheaper mercenaries that he had brought with him, "I'll double the pay of anyone that brings me the heads of Tazuna or any of the ninja!"

The mercenaries surged off of the boat and onto the bridge. They roared out some battle cries before rushing what they believed to be rather tired ninja. Kakashi was only slightly tired, while Naruto was tapping into a rather infinite battery of energy. Sasuke was still rife with energy and Sakura was the same, they had only to deal with two swordsmen before heading for the bridge when they witnessed the lightshow.

It was a battle between more than fifty mercenaries armed to the teeth against a jounin, three genin, and townspeople that were more than ready to run for their lives. The odds were stacked against the side that didn't have a jinchuuriki. Gato was going to go down one way or another.

"Sasuke, I want you to make sure that Gato doesn't leave this battle alive," Kakashi seriously said, he didn't want to risk Sakura hesitating at the last moment so he decided to use Sasuke and his speed as well as his long lost innocence to do the deed, "Naruto help me take care of these scum."

"Hai," both genin said, Naruto taking initiative and rushed headlong into the crowd of mercenaries that had thought the genin stupid and an easy kill. They thought that he was tired from the fight with Zabuza. They were sorely wrong on both accounts.

The people of Wave were not spared the sight of the black clad genin being skewered and having his body literally pulled apart by the great number of blades that were stuck into him.

Sakura nearly lost it, but stood her ground in front of Tazuna and the people of Wave.

"Sakura," Kakashi said with a serious officer in charge tone, "You are the last line of defense between Gato's forces and the people of Wave. Do not fail. There is more than the mission on line here."

"Hai," Sakura replied and steeled her resolve to protect the cowardly people of Wave.

Kakashi joined his students who were fighting the group of battlehardened men. Sasuke hitting the instant kill spots of his opponents as he made his way to Gato, while Naruto did his thing and killed his opponents in any and every way that came to mind, as well as using some of the techniques he had come up with based on Mazo Shindou.

'_Hijutsu: Shinzou Hossa Yashi!_' Naruto thought in his mind as sent mercenary after mercenary crashing to the ground clutching at their chests as if suffering a heart attack or feeling the pain of being stabbed in the heart. All it took was a simple palm thrust and a small seal that appeared on Naruto's palm as it impacted on the chests of is victims. The technique was a combination of ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, and taijutsu, along with the requirement of the ability to write seals with chakra alone and or do it very fast.

It was a palm thrust of pain, plain and simple.

'_Hijutsu: Hone Funsai Ashi!_' was what Naruto thought whenever he kicked someone. The technique caused the victim of the kick to feel all the bones in the immediate area of where he or she was kicked to shatter, when the victim thought and believed that was what happened, Naruto had a golden golden mist that did the rest and did indeed cause those bones to shatter. The extent of the actual physical damage depended on Naruto's intent and of course the actual force of the kick.

The bones of the victims of Naruto's random kicks ranged in injury from mere cracks to being turned into fine dust particles, of course they felt all the pain that would be felt if it was only the kick that did the shattering.

Since Naruto had experienced being cooked from the inside out, basically he had experienced someone boiling him using his own blood, he came up with a technique that used that painful boiling sensation.

'_Hijustu: Ketsueki Futtou-Ken!_' Naruto thought for every punch he tossed out to cause his opponent to feel their blood boil within their very veins, sure there was a jutsu that could cause that to happen, but why settle for a jutsu that would take some time when one could make it happen in something like an instant.

Of course all of these techniques of his did come at a price. He felt a fraction of what his victims were feeling. It was the price demanded, and no matter what he did, he couldn't make the technique harmless to the user, not that it mattered much to him at this point in time, but it meant that he couldn't teach it to anyone. Not that he really wanted to teach it to anyone.

When he was at his last victim, Sasuke had just brutally disposed of Gato after the man dared threaten Sasuke's already dead family, Kakashi had finished of the second to the last thug, and Sakura was standing above one mercenary that had gotten past the three boys.

"Finish him!" Kakashi ordered, and watched a man receive third degree burns and die from them when there were no flames, he also saw part of Naruto's skin receive the same burns before healing.

"Hijutsu: Nenshou no Te," was all Naruto said as he dropped the man he had held by the throat only a moment ago, the body dropped to the ground and turned to ashes which were blown away by the winds.

"Naruto," Kakashi asked, "Where did you learn that?"

They held their conversation as Sasuke decided to be the good teammate and help his pink haired teammate get over the fact that she had killed to protect while the people of Wave celebrated and rejoiced at the fall of Gato. The construction crew members decided on what they were going to name the bridge. The Great Naruto Bridge. After the genin that had helped them build the damn thing. All thoughts of how brutal and suicidal, and bloody, the teen was flew out of their minds as soon as the though of Gato being gone for good clicked into their mind.

"I created 'em," Naruto replied, "Based them on a kinjutsu from our village's scroll. Very painful stuff for a normal person. But we both know I'm far from normal, even as far as jinchuuriki go."

"I'll agree with you on that," Kakashi said, "Tell me. Would it be possible to learn one of those techniques?"

"Yeah, sure," Naruto said, "Though I'd like to know why you'd want to learn even one of them."

"Precautionary measure, as well as a suicide technique is always good to have," Kakashi replied.

"Well only some of them are suicidal," Naruto said, "There's also the intensity of the attack to think of, and the source of the power behind the attack."

"Care to elaborate on that while everyone else celebrates and the two of us just stand here due to our inability to really move about anymore thanks to the two battles we've been apart of," Kakashi said in a sing-song voice.

"Sure thing sensei," Naruto said, then explained, "I'm making my own taijutsu style, one which revolves around pain. Ranging from annoying pain to debilitating to fatal pain. Fool the mind and the rest will follow, although thanks to my condition I can go a bit farther than that."

"I see," Kakashi said, "What do you mean by a bit farther?"

"Well if anyone else other than myself uses say..the Shinzou Hossa Yashi, then the victim would only feel the heart attack and die because his or her brain 100% believed it was a real heart attack," Naruto said, "But when I do it, I can somehow give that person an actual heart attack on top of the pain of a heart attack."

"I see," Kakashi said, "Is that because of your tenant?"

"Not directly," Naruto said, "I've got this extra energy in me that the Kyuubi's deathly afraid of, that's the thing that gives my secret techniques their extra kick."

"Does the Hokage know about this energy?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said, "He knows about it. I had to tell him about it one time."

"I see," Kakashi said, "Please continue with your explaination about your techniques."

"Alright," Naruto said, "They're pain transfering techniques. Our minds remember the pain we feel whenver we get hurt in some way. My techniques work by using taijutsu to deliver the hit and fuuinjutsu to transfer the pain your mind recalls, recent injuries work better. The realer the pain for the user, the realer the pain for the victim. The original technique doesn't only transfer the pain felt but also the damage dealt, but I have yet to incorporate that into my techniques, truly incorporate it. The intensity of the original technique can also be controlled to a certain degree, but you can't learn that one, so I won't elaborate on it."

"Anything else I should know about?" Kakashi asked.

"The fuuinjutsu isn't chakra ink based," Naruto stated, "One must be able to push out a seal matrix out of their tenketsu to activate the effects of the technique. It would be difficult stuff for me to do, but as I said I've got help. There is a shortcut though, a one time use thing. You could incorporate a ready made seal, one which was created using your chakra, though you'd have to ask a sealmaster about how to adhere a seal matrix made completely out of fine lines of your chakra onto a solid surface."

"I see," Kakashi said, "You seem very knowledgable about seals Naruto. How'd that come to be?"

"Gift from the other energy," Naruto said, "Special promo package. I get lots of nifty gifts, but can't die and lots of people want me dead and a bunch of other unfair things..and don't even think about saying it."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Kakashi said, then decided that they had had enough seriousness for one mission, "Let's get back to everyone and join the celebration or rest," he noticed that Sasuke and Sakura were doing fine on their own, and so thought, '_I guess I'll just leave those to on their own for now._'


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

.

.

**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 7**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

The bridge was completed a week after the battle on the bridge, it was christened The Great Naruto Bridge because Naruto had helped loads during the actual construction leading to the completion and had even gone so far as to delve into his knowledge of fuuinjutsu to make the bridge last for more than a lifetime. It was protected to the extent that an all out attack from the Ichihi would only shake it or at most chip small parts of it.

The rest of team 7 were treated as heroes as well, but to a smaller extent, a plaque was placed on end end of the bridge detailing the exploits of each member, but only Naruto got the honor of having a bridge named after him. The naming and the plaque had been placed after team 7 said their goodbyes and headed for home. Naruto was actually unaware of how he was viewed by an entire nation. Word of his deeds there would spread as well as his battle prowess, there would also be tales of how insane he was with regards to his personal health.

Team 7 was welcomed back into their home village with nary any fanfare, they didn't mind, they were already viewed as heroes of another nation, while that was saying something all they wanted to do was report to their leader and head for home, wherever each of their homes were.

Sasuke lived in his house in the mostly abandoned Uchiha district, Sakura lived with her parents, Kakashi had an apartment even though he also had a clan house that he could use if he wanted to, and Naruto had his own place or several of them like that one abandoned building that the Hokage had given him after his reformed body had been found there.

The Hokage dismissed one half of the team while having Naruto and Kakashi remain behind in his office, he needed a more detailed report from the two of them. Sasuke and Sakura were glad that they could go home and rest, while the other two waited patiently to be addressed by the military leader.

"Naruto I want a report on this new fighting style of yours," the Hokage said, "I'll burn the report once I'm through reading it as I believe you'd want them to remain as clan secrets or something to that effect. I would also like for you to go on another extermination mission, solo once again. A-rank, do you accept?"

"I accept Hokage-jiji," Naruto said, then asked, "What is it?"

"I have received reports of several bandit camps that seem to be forming some sort of alliance," the Hokage said, "They are planning on taking over the village of Chuusei which is one of the villages near our border with Wind Country. I want you to stop this force from even reaching the village. It doesn't matter whether or not they have any more ill intentions for the country, or if they are working for some greater power. I want them wiped out. Is that clear?"

"Hai Hokage-sama," Naruto replied, "How soon should I leave?"

"Now, preferably," the Hokage said, "There are forces at work in the world that plot against the village and our power. I would have them crippled as best as possible, a show of force is needed for the eyes in the shadows that our village still has what it takes to remain at the top."

"I"m on my way," Naruto said and left the office via the door unlike some other people who left through the window or via shunshin, speed or teleportation method.

"We just came back from a mission and you sent him out again, why?" Kakashi asked, not bothering to request permission, the Hokage was used to it anyway.

"He needs the money as well as the experience," the Hokage said, "He also needs to feel alive in the craziest way possible which is coming face to face with death. Its what he wants, and the village gains something from all these suicide runs I plan on sending him out on."

"But why Hokage-sama?" Kaakshi said, "Surely there are other ways..people...I don't know.."

"I see him as a grandson and a friend," the Hokage said, "As a grandfather and a friend, I want to see him happy, and if sending him off on suicide missions will give him the chance to find that happiness, I'll keep sending him to his potential death as many times as I can. Plus, the village could use his protection and the money generated from his performing these missions."

"I..Hokage-sama, I mean no disrespect," Kakashi said, "But I can't see anything moral about this practice."

"Would you rather I confine him to the village where he could go into an even more depressed state and potentially snap and go on a rampage killing everyone in the world?" the Hokage asked the jounin, "Not only is this a means for him to potentially meet his end, it also serves as an outlet for his frustrations. He's practically immortal, there is a far greater chance of Orochimaru obtaining immortality than Naruto dying on these kinds of missions so you need not worry about his safety."

"I still can't see how this is healthy for his mentality," Kakashi said, "I am trying to see the reason for all this as his sensei, you know, acting all responsible and all that for once in my life."

"I can clearly see your attempt," the Hokage said, "But I assure you, this is what is best for Naruto for the time being."

"Hai Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, resigning himself to defeat, and bowed to the Hokage before leaving even though he had not yet been dismissed, the Hokage decided to overlook the slight disrespect of the action since Kakashi had gone through quite a lot on such a simple mission such as the one the silver haired man had been on.

"*"

Naruto left the village in a rush, only stopping by his apartment on his way back to the gate to restock on supplies as well as to grab a change of clothing. He needed another suit one that had those self repairing seals on them that fed on his chakra to perform the repairs. The cloth was made out of chakra saturated fibers that allowed for chakra to be used in such a way. The process was like healing a person using healing chakra, but this time the healing was performed on clothing.

He stuck to the shadows once he left the village, hiding in plain sight under henge when he needed to. He didn't let any wild animals scare him and any mercenary, bounty hunter, bandit, or nuke-nin he came across that wished him harm was indiscriminately killed and the corpse swallowed up by a storage scroll to preserve the remains as proof of kill.

He did not go out of his way to attack anyone that did not cross his path, not even those two people who wore black cloaks with red cloud designs on them, even though he had a feeling that he could win a battle with such people due to just how long he could continue to do battle. Everyone tired on the battlefield save for those with nothing to lose and those that didn't have to worry about dying.

He found the bandit camps easily enough, they looked to be more organized than he had originally anticipated. There was a structure, there was no madness to find some sort of meaning of. There was a visible chain of command, there were even those among the campers that had more chakra than the average bandit, some ninja training some had it seemed. He checked all the camps that he could find, there were a lot of them, some of the biggest ones from all over the country had gathered in the forests around the village of Chuusei.

The question, other than their intention of taking the village, was why and how. There must have been another greater driving force that had united these bandit groups together under one banner, under one cause. Naruto didn't know what it was yet, but he decided to find out, after all he could just walk into a camp and kill all the people in it whenever he pleased. He didn't have to fear for his life after all.

He decided that the first thing he would be while on his self assigned reconnaissance mission was to send transformed clones into the village and into the camps, impersonating bandits and random civilians, in order to gather more intelligence on the operation. He wanted to know what seemed so important about this particular nearly border village and who was behind the attempt to take it.

The clones performed their duties as well as their creator, masterful actors all of them were, even the female clones managed their chosen roles perfectly. They learned that the village was already partially under control of the bandits and whoever was leading them. They found out that the one leading the bandits was a self styled bandit king the strongest of the bandit that any of the groups could find.

The clones found out that the bandits sought to forge a kingdom of their own starting with the village of Chuusei, from there they would move on to another border village, then to another village, or town or city, until they had overrun the country with their numbers that they believed would grow. They believed that the time for ninjas was over, they wanted to usher in a world where ninjas were no longer needed.

Naruto didn't really like that. He didn't like that they were planning on starting a war. There were a few ninja among their ranks, but these were low ranking nuke-nin at best, while this leader was something else. He was a particularly strong bandit, one that had undergone martial arts training at the Fire Temple alongside the monks that trained there.

He was a threat that Naruto believed needed to be eliminated.

So he acted just as the bandits were scheduled to show their might to the world by attacking a village they already had control over, then moving as a unified force to the nearest village of the land of fire.

They had grown to recognize ninjas as glorified mercenaries and bounty hunters. Glorified soldiers and guards. Glorified messengers and laborers with supernatural powers, powers that ordinary men could harness on their own if they so wished. They had forgotten how ninjas of old operated, those shadows that moved beyond a normal person's perceptions.

Naruto couldn't afford to be selfish when it came to this mission, it wasn't something he could just have fun performing and going out of his way to meet the shinigami again and again. He needed to act the part of a soldier here. He had a way of life to protect, innocent people to defend, and a village to prove his loyalty and dedication to.

The bandits staged their attack at night, they had made sure that there were spies in Chuusei from other countries, there were always eyes and ears that would unknowingly act as spies, bystanders that would manage to escape the attack and report what had happened to the rest of the world. That was the purpose of survivors in an attack after all, to spread the world of the deeds of the attackers.

There were some Konoha-nin stationed within the village, but they were only of Chunin rank and power, they would be no match for the army of bandits that the self styled king had amassed. They were also part of the reason why Naruto had left a sizable force of clones within the defensive walls of the village.

It was a rebel alliance against the shadows of the night for every shadow that the bandits passed their numbers grew smaller and smaller, by the time they reached the walls of the village to begin their siege their numbers had already been cut in half. It would be several days before anyone would stumble upon the remains of the fallen, their bodies cold to the touch, and their eyes wide in fear.

The Konoha-nin stationed in the village had no time to act, not that they needed to, since around the time that the bandits were about to scale the walls and break in through the village gate Naruto and his clone army emerged from the inky blackness. Their forms seemingly melting out of the shadows as if once being parts of the very shadows that blanketed the playing field.

They made no sound and used to visible jutsu, but when they attacked, all that they touched fell. Torches were snuffed out, and lives were lost forever, but it was a silent death that met the ears of the onlookers, both friend and foe alike. Not a word was spoken as each rogue was put down painfully.

The pain they felt was so unbearable that each victim screamed a silent scream, a pitch so high that not even canines would have been able to hear it, music to their killers' ears. Those that screamed were very few, they were the ones whose skin was flayed or whose bones were broken beyond recognition and or repair.

Shadows danced in the darkness, in the lightless void of the battlefield. The rogues all fell, one after another, cascading to the earthen floor, helpless to the silent death that ended their lives prematurely. The gods of death, in view of any that could see them, swooped down on the dead and dying. Their black and white cloaks filling the sky as they gorged themselves on the banquet of souls that were leaving their mortal shells for their afterlives.

Not a single shining of any blade, not a single piece of steel shone in the darkness. The rogues had no time to draw any form of defense, they all fell unarmed. It was euthanasia of a mass of people. More than just torches were snuffed out.

Then when only those members of the unified bandit army that had hidden within the walls of the village were left, only then did the silent surgeons of death revealed by the light of the island of light in the sea of blackness. Naruto and his clones, all clothed in pitch entered the light. They climbed up the walls or jumped over the gate. They did not falter, no one knew who they were, not even the Chunin that hadn't been home for a while, they had yet to see Naruto in his professional costume.

His army of clones, and himself, walked through the streets of the village like an army of zombies, they even stalked the rooftops, all of them moving zeroing in on their targets for the night. All of them knew where they were going, no communication was needed as they were all of one and the same entity, they were all Naruto, and Naruto was all of them.

He learned a new trick while felling his foes in the inky black darkness that resembled the void that all things had at one time come from. He learned the art of illusions, false illusions, ones that did not need any form of energy to activate. All that was needed were the clone that was to disappear to walk over to a shadow and gradually dispel itself, or seem as it it was fading or merging with the shadow, merging with the darkness. They were creatures of shadow anyway to begin with, why not return to being such creatures while still being the same clones that Naruto knew how to masterfully make use of.

The bandit army members, the rebellious louts that had hidden themselves within the village soon joined their brothers who died beyond the walls. No one bothered to stop the stalking shadows for any that tried failed to even touch one of the clones or the original for that matter. The clones all used that false illusion of dispersal into black mist or merging with shadows to fool those that tried to stop their movements.

The clones that had remained in their transformed states within the village and in close proximity to the rebels there were the ones to end the lives of those traitors to the land. Their faces and forms would go unnoticed, no one would be able to recall what they looked like and no one would think to blame them for the deaths of those people that had gained the ability to call themselves citizens of the village before the siege.

When the rebel leader, the self styled king, was the only one remaining, his might could not be felt as he shivered and curled up into a ball within the room of the house that he stayed in. Outside the paper thin walls he could see them all, the shadows that milled about and destroyed his forces. He watched his ambitions all come crashing down around him.

He heard all death wails of those that had come under his banner, all those that had been ready to overwhelm the current government with their numbers. He heard them all, he heard their pleas for help, their cries for aid. He heard them all call out for him to fight for them, to defend them, to protect them, and to fight alongside them, like a leader should or would want to. But he did not come out of hiding as soon as the fighting began.

He holed himself up where he thought he was safe, and prepared himself to simply accept the praise that would be showered on him, he prepared himself for his coronation. None of which would ever come to pass. No one would ever again think of rising up in rebellion in such a manner again. No one would ever trust some commoner, some reject from a way of life that he wished to change in revenge. No one would bother with such a thing when what already existed was more than good enough for the majority.

"_No one will ever again come under the command of a coward,_" Naruto whispered coldly into the man's ear, "_No one will ever again have to suffer for another man's useless ambition. No one again will have to deal with a pathetic insect..such as yourself._"

"NO! Wait!" the man shouted and tried to move but all he managed to do was move his head and look into the colder than ice gaze of Naruto, whose cerulean orbs had transformed into something more like glaciers, "I..I.."

"_You who dared not face a real foe, you who dared not reach for something greater with your own hands,_" Naruto said as he grabbed hold of the man and lifted him up with his ghostly chains, "_Your greatest crime in this life was to betray your comrades. You are worse than trash. So _DIE!" it came out as a shout and the self styled king was the only one to suffer a gruesome fate, his body ripped to shreds by the chains that had grown barbs that dug into the man's body and squeezed more than just the life out of him but also his physical form. The extent of the damage extended to his already deformed soul, the death gods were glad to come take him, and a portal into the fiery pits where his rotten soul was dropped into to be added to the war machine of hell.

Since it was all over, Naruto left the room, and the house, and the village. He didn't bother leaving a bloody trail behind as he didn't need nor want to be followed. He didn't leave any survivors from his assigned target. He made sure to kill them all, the only ones he had left alive were the civilians, spies, and his fellow shinobi. The village had lost a fourth of its population, while the surrounding forest was stained with the cold corpses of the would be rebels, those bandits and traitors that had dared to try and usurp the present order with their criminality.

It couldn't be helped that his actions would be leaked to the rest of the world. The Hokage hadn't said anything about not being seen or noticed. He hid his identity as a Konoha-nin just in case, but aside from his identity and allegiances he hid nothing else. He left the bodies of more than 250 criminal elements out for anyone to see, as well as a room that had been repainted crimson and refurnished with what was left of a person.

Naruto returned to the village with a week to spare before the Chunin Exams, he was sure that his team would be entered into it as they had experienced much during their short stint as genin. He reported his success to the Hokage but need not mention his failure at dying permanently due to his still being around to submit his verbal and written report. The Hokage congratulated him on a job well done and informed him that new intelligence on the movement had arisen that shed light to how it had all began.

Orochimaru had something to do with it, manipulating the leaders of the bands while in henge, and inserted some agents into their ranks to further manipulate them. He had been hoping to provide a distraction for the forces of Konoha in order for him to have an easier time plotting against and possibly attacking the village.

It was with this information that the Hokage informed the blonde that his team had indeed been entered into the upcoming chunin exams, and that Naruto was expected to report any suspicious activity of people, more suspicious than usual that is. He was also instructed to avoid revealing just how special he was.

He gave no promises on that front, and left the Hokage's office and finally headed for home, where he was met with quite a mess. Some people had decided to redecorate his home while he was away, and desecrate it once again. Since they could no longer hurt him directly, they saw fit to do it indirectly once again. He didn't mind, he was used to it by now and simply created some clones to go about getting things back in order, while sending some to his other properties which consisted of abandoned buildings found in the most unlivable district of the village, which was near the village cemetery and prisons, Anbu and the regular one. Those ones were to prepare one of those places for him to move in, which he could legally do.

He went to bed at around midnight.

Since his old apartment didn't have anyone living near where he had stayed, he filled his old apartment with high class explosive tags and notes as a present for anyone that wanted to make his life even more of a living hell. He did of course warn the Hokage of what he did via clone.

In the morning the village was awoken by the sound of an explosion coming from one of the residential districts, the place where the explosion occurred had half of a building demolished and a number of people laying either injured, dying, or dead. The injured were quick to confess what they had planned on doing, which brought to light that the village pariah was now willing to fight back.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

.

.

**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 8**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

The Hokage had personally filed Naruto's registration papers for the Chunin exams and only informed Kakashi that his team would participate one way or another and with or without one or more of the members. Naruto was going to participate whether his teammates participated or not was their choice, but the blonde could not afford to not participate for the good of the village.

Kakashi went to talk to the blonde the day before the exam was to begin, and tried to convince the blonde to keep his teammates safe during the exam as he had a bad feeling about the exam and was also regretting volunteering them for it. They were ready for the exam, he was sure of it, what he wasn't sure of was whether or not they were ready for whatever it was that made his skin crawl about the exam.

Naruto assured the jounin that he would not let his teammates down, he knew of the anomalous presence in the exams that Kakashi was only skeptical about as the Hokage had already informed him of it. Kakashi decided that since Naruto would be ensuring the safety of his team, then there was relatively nothing to worry about.

The silver haired sensei offered to train Naruto if managed to get into the third part of the exam, the part where the participants skills were showcased to the potential clients of the villages. But Naruto decided to decline but requested that he be helped if he ever asked for it, he knew that Kakashi would be forced to train the last Uchiha personally as Sasuke was sure to make it to the very end of the exam as well, one way or another.

The team met up just outside of the Academy, which was where the first part of the exam was to take place. Two of them were barely armed as they weren't told how to prepare for the exam, just to prepare for it. While Naruto came armed to the teeth wearing his shinobi shouzoku attire, as his other clothing was only for other activities that had nothing to do with his main profession, or unless he needed to blend in and not stand out too much. He had forgotten to inform his teammates about what he knew about the exams, which was why he was the only one to be truly prepared for the thing.

They need not make any verbal communication with one another as they were already resigned to participate in the life altering path that was the road to becoming chunin. All three of them had improved since they last visited the academy, even Sakura had improved in the time she had spent with her team. Her eyes had been opened in Wave on the bridge. Her eyes were open to the reality of the ninja world.

Sasuke added onto his personal arsenal of Katon jutsu, adding some Raiton into the mix as suggested by Kakashi, while Sakura got a few medical jutsu for her own as well as Doton jutsu. Sasuke was the mid to long range fighter of the group, Naruto would serve as close to long range fighter, while Sakura was the mid range fighter as well as main support of the team. She was truly a vital member of the team.

The value of teamwork had been drilled into their heads during the mission to Wave, they knew that they would be needing to get through the exam as a team not as individuals. It was when they were walking up the stairs heading for the third level that Naruto informed them, in whisper, about the information he had on the exam. His information sharing had proven to be the best distraction for the Uchiha's pride not to resurface as they passed a pair of Chunin posing as genin with a genjutsu to trick the more hopeless hopefuls of the batch from participating in the actual exam.

It also proved as distraction enough for the group to avoid their more senior fellow genin who were sizing up the competition. Sasuke was not bothered by some taijutsu nut and Sakura didn't gain some weird fanboy. They also weren't subjected to the horrifying fate of witnessing the unnatural debilitating genjutsu that Maito Gai and his clone created during their manly hug moments.

Kakashi greeted them when they arrived at the correct classroom for the exam and congratulated them on their decision to participate in the exam as a team and wished them luck as they would need it. He hoped to see them at the end of the second part of the exam, and told them that he knew they had what it took to make it to the end.

Upon entering the classroom they were met by an unfocused atmosphere of killing intent. It was spread out and came from the majority of participants of the exam. To shield themselves from the effects that were beginning to rise within them, they sent out their own unfocused killing intent. Intimidation was one of the weapons that everyone had at their disposal when it came to not being allowed to physically come into contact with one another as they could be kicked out of the exam for disorderly conduct.

Their arrival was met with no fanfare, unless one considered the rest of the Rookies walking over to them acting as if the exam wasn't such a big thing. It was obvious to Team 7 that their former classmates were not ready for the world they lived in. They had yet to see and experience the things that Team 7 had collectively and individually experienced. Ranging from their first kills to temporarily dying over and over again.

Not one of the Rookies managed to identify Naruto in his work outfit, as even his eyes were hidden from view via a strip of cloth over his eyes which had seals on it that allowed him to see through it as well as see in a number of other ways. Not even his former stalker, Hyuuga Hinata, had managed to recognize him though if she had activated the primary ability of her special eyes she might have found out who he was Kiba started insulting Naruto and calling him an incompetent as well as a coward.

The rest of the Rookies believed that Naruto didn't have what it took and had been replaced by the black clad statue that stood by the wall close to a shadow which the Nara found that he could not tap into for some reason. Shino's bugs were unable to get a read on this new member, as that was what they all perceived him as being.

It grated on team 7's collective nerves that the rest of the Rookies were not taking the exam seriously. They were soiling the reputation of their village by acting like the rookies that they were. Sasuke's opinion of Ino lowered as he could not see how she was serious about her craft. Sakura too lost some respect for her former best friend as she saw just what she could have become had she not been exposed to the real world like she had.

Naruto should not have minded, but to be insulted behind his back, which was what Kiba believed he was doing, was something that Naruto didn't think he could ignore for long. It took Sasuke moving closer to him and Sakura partially blocking his path for him to return to simply having his nerves grated on.

The bad mouthing of a teammate and fellow rookie drew the attention of a veteran of the exams, one Yakushi Kabuto the adopted son of the Head of the village hospital. He was a genius some said when it came to medical jutsu yet he was still a genin in rank for his continued failure to be promoted. He warned the rookies that their unprofessional behavior could them them killed in the exam or worse. He also offered his services when it came to information about the participants of the exam, information that he had accumulated from his veterancy in taking the exams.

Sasuke opted to ask for information on Sabaku no Gaara, whom he had encountered earlier in the week within the village, it was only thanks to Kakashi that the Suna-nin had not challenged Sasuke to a _spar_. The boy had clearly been leaking bloodlust as soon as Sasuke had intervened when he chanced upon Sabaku no Kankurou bullying the Hokage's grandson, and secret admirer of Naruto thanks to Iruka. Something was definitely off about the Suna genin that was for sure, he wanted to see if Kabuto knew what it was or at least had a clue about it.

It was revealed that the Suna-nin had come out of each and every one of his missions unscathed, he had an impenetrable defense and had a lot of kills to his name, and had been sent on zero D-rank missions but had been sent on C to A rank missions. It was somewhat disturbing, of course Sasuke and Sakura didn't really find it that disturbing since they had borne witness to Naruto being more emo than Sasuke had ever been.

Kiba requested information not of another village but of his own village.

Before Kabuto could pull out the cards from his ninfo card deck on Sasuke, for information purposes, and Naruto, for humiliation purposes, Naruto's hand shot out and more or less confiscated the cards and looked through them all, his fingers and mini-chains drawing seals on every card that had information on fellow Konoha-nin. When he found some classified information on his own card, he decided that he would pocket the deck instead and submit it as proof of Kabuto being some sort of spy.

"Excuse me," Kabuto said to him, "If you wanted to view them, you could have asked instead of leafing through them yourself. They're mine and I worked quite hard for them."

"Of course you worked hard for them," Naruto's voice came as an emotionless monotone, "Classified information is not something one learns from an exam or from public records after all. One would really have to work hard to gather such information."

"What are you talking about?" Kabuto asked, trying to act ignorant and innocent at the same time. Had he been dealing with anyone else, his acting skills would have fooled the person, but he was dealing with a pro at acting.

"I see through your act," Naruto stated, "One way or another, by the end of this exam, you will be exposed for the criminal that you are."

It was then that Sakura decided to elbow Naruto in the side as she didn't want Naruto to make a scene, even though the grouped genins had already attracted the attention and killing intent of most all the other village representatives.

It was also then that the door slammed open and the proctor for the exam entered the room followed by his chunin assistants. Morino Ibiki was the proctor for the first part of the exam, he also happened to be the Head of the Torture and Intelligence Division of the village, which just made this portion of the exam all the more difficult.

"Listen up!" Ibiki said in a loud voice, drowning out the killing intent filled atmosphere with his own which sent most reeling back in surprise at the sudden application of such intent shutting off their own in slight fear, though there were those that didn't let up and decided to challenge the jounin, "This test is a written test, you'll each be assigned seats. So line up, pick a number, and head to your assigned seat."

The genin followed his instructions and waited impatiently or patiently depending on the genin for him to begin the exam or lay down some extra rules for they couldn't believe that it could be that simple. When it came to be Naruto's turn to be assigned a seat he slipped Ibiki a note along with the ninfo cards, the note was a short and to the point message detailing Kabuto being a spy, for who Naruto was unsure of but it was possible that it was Orochimaru.

Ibiki discreetly read the note that had been slipped into his trench coat pocket after he realized it was there, he only noticed it several genin after Naruto had taken his place behind a desk and beside Hinata. He read it and discreetly had a shadow clone of himself deliver the suspicions to the Hokage. He then informed the genin of his additional rules for the test, passed out the papers, and began the exam.

The genin were forced to cheat their way through the test, they just weren't allowed to get caught. For a single member to fail meant for the whole team to fail, and Team 7 knew that they couldn't afford to get caught.

Sasuke used his sharingan, but hid his eyes relatively from view pretending to be trying his hardest to answer the questions on his own while in reality he kept his eyes trained on one of the false genin among the genin ranks. It was hard to pretend to be having a hard time and just as hard switching his special eyes on and off from time to time. It all depended on whether or not he felt that someone was looking at him intently or not.

Sakura had her book smarts, when she decided to take her career more seriously, she also decided to broaden her knowledge base and studied up some more during her free time. Not only memorizing information and taking it for what it was, but also understanding the information, and seeing how she could apply it to her day to day or to a situation.

Naruto used clones to get the answers he needed, he sent them off in different transformed states. They were undetected by the chunin or by Ibiki as they all appeared on the ground of the outside of the academy. They took the form of common civilians, mice, rats, crows, worms, cats, dogs, and a whole host of other things. They all knew the questions that they needed to find answers to, and since Naruto had a feeling that the Hokage would or might have a copy of the answer sheet some of the clones headed for the Hokage's office to perform an information gathering mission there. If that failed, there was always Iruka.

The clone spies that were sent to the Hokage's office were met with much success. Naruto knew the ins and outs of the office so well as well as the general layout of the place, along with the usual placement of things that it was quite easy to locate things that were not normally there. Such as the answer sheet which the Hokage used as a bookmark for one of his Icha Icha novels.

There were a number of security seals in place around the office which had been put in place ever since Naruto managed to steal the village's Kinjutsu scroll, but of course the Hokage's porn stash was not among the things that had any security on them. They were just porn after all.

The only reason why the clones had been successful of their thievery was thanks to the fact that the Hokage was making his daily rounds of the village, he didn't think that with all the security seals in place that his office could be compromised. He didn't even bother leaving an Anbu stationed in the office as a precaution. The clones had a grand old time in the place seeing how far they could go with their creator's knowledge on seals. It was the Hokage's own fault for leaving such things without any real protection.

With the information that had been originally intended to be found found, and some additional ones added into the mix, the clones dispelled in groups alerting the other clones to follow suit as well. Naruto got the answer and he hadn't even gotten caught doing it.

It was during the test itself that Hinata and her cousin managed to find out the true identity of the masked and black clad Naruto. It was quite a shock for the white eyed ones to know that their former schoolmate was the black clad shinobi that had replaced the loud and hyperactive one that had been rather infamous in their academy days.

The phenomenal control that Naruto had over his chakra was seen by the Hyuuga eyes, they saw how it was somehow restricted and kept deep beneath the surface where it had formerly been all over the place, uncontrolled like the maelstrom that Naruto could become and was somewhat named after. Of course his control was helped along with some handy dandy seals he had on his person, restricting the flow of his energies into one that was more controllable to him with his level of control. Though the crimson and gold were the ones that he didn't really need much help controlling as he was perfectly in-tuned with both.

The latter two energies were not noticed by the two Hyuuga. Though his identity was momentary distraction enough for the two Hyuuga during the test that Hinata almost got kicked out of the exam and her teammates with her.

At the end of the written test, the genin told of the real exam, the final question. It was a do or die time. The written exam was just to weed out the weak and worthless from the lot, and apparently there were still quite a number of teams in the exam. Many chose to quit, but in the end there were still quite the number of teams remaining.

Anko was the second proctor for the exam, she entered the classroom in a flashy manner complete with banner announcing just who she was. It was a good thing that she failed to recognize Naruto, for had she recognized him she might have lost some of her spirit upon remembering how she had met him.

She led the genins to the Forest of Death, her local haunt, and wasn't aware that the creatures within the forest were stirring, more in fear than in anticipation. They sensed him. They knew that Naruto was nearing their home. Their domain, and he was returning even more prepared than the last time he had been within the fence that surrounded that particular forest.

The genins were told to sign a waiver that would make sure that Konoha would not be held responsible for anything that would happen to the genin that participated in the upcoming portion of the exam onwards, until the end of the Chunin Exam. When all the waivers had been signed and Anko told them everything they needed to know, and all the scrolls were handed out. The genin were let into the forest without much of a fuss.

Anko clearly wasn't in the mood for playing around and scaring the genin due to the recent memories that her favorite haunt brought up within her mind. The scene of carnage was still fresh, just as fresh as her brush with death and the immortal monster of the leaves.

As soon as team 7 entered the forest, Naruto took point, Sakura stayed in the middle, and Sasuke took to the rear. They moved in single file across the upper branches of the trees, making straight for the center of the forest where they would let Naruto set up traps for anyone that came to the center to do the same. They didn't plan on staying in the forest longer than necessary.

They made great time and didn't come across anything that would pose a problem for them. It was thanks to Naruto's quick reflexes that the team managed to dodge an ambush from a Kusa-nin.

They set up camp just at the base of the fortress found in the middle of the forest, from there Naruto kept watch over his traps like a spider did its web. He had strings of chakra crisscrossing the perimeter of the center of the forest, each one was also attached to a trap, not as a control springing mechanism, but as a means to be alerted should one be activated.

Sasuke would serve as the response team, while Sakura made sure that they would not be ambushed again, she kept her senses sharp using her chakra. They each had a role to play, and they each had no qualms about taking another life.

They didn't have to wait long for one of the other teams to make it to the central tower, the fortress. It only took a matter of a few hours of patiently waiting for the one of the traps to be sprung. Sasuke was directed to which trap zone had been penetrated, and Naruto sent him some clone reinforcement as a precaution. It would not do to go in unprepared after all.

Sakura readied herself as well, since there was a possibility that she would need to follow her black haired teammate since the clones were not as immortal as their blonde creator. Naruto kept his concentration on his threads, just a spider. He was waiting for something big to be caught in his web, something worth saying 'welcome to my parlor' to.

Naruto surprised his bubblegum haired teammate when he suddenly jumped to his feet and she could see him reel in all of his chakra threads, one of which moved faster than the others, all of them were visible to the naked eye too. The forest suddenly lit up with explosions and the sounds of traps being sprung around the perimeter of the tower. It was a miniature war zone in its general feel. A minute or two after the traps started going off Sasuke reemerge from the foliage, no clones followed him.

"Kill it!" he shouted as he shot past Naruto and dragged Sakura long with him.

Barreling after the Uchiha was the largest snake that Naruto had ever seen. It seemed intent on catching the last Uchiha, as a meal or as a prisoner, Naruto wasn't sure, and since his teammate wanted it dead and fast, he complied.

All he did was wrap his chains and chakra strings around the snake and pulled. The chains and threads squeezed more than just the life out of the thing. It wasn't even able to return to its home realm, where its summon clan resided. Manda had just lost one of his children, and to a genin no less.

"Thanks!" Sasuke said as he returned to his blonde teammate's side, breathing heavily from his run from the thing.

"You're welcome," Naruto said, then asked, "Did you see anything out of the ordinary once you got to the trap?"

"Nothing," Sasuke said, "I only noticed the snake after it gobbled up your clones. I hope they don't give you any additional nightmares to the ones you already have."

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said, "What we do have to worry about is whoever it was that intentionally tripped the trap, and summoned the thing I just killed."

"Looks like our original plan will have to be put on hold," Sasuke said, "Why'd you set off all of your traps anyway?"

"It was my attempt to at least injure he who I suspect was behind your encounter with that snake," Naruto said, then decided to share a bit more information as well as his suspicions, it was a rather delightful experience for the other two members of the team to know that they could potentially be facing Orochimaru of all nuke-nin during the exam.

"He is well known for wanting to learn every jutsu in the world," Sakura stated as she tried to think of why the nuke-nin did what he did, for who else could or would summon up such a snake.

"He's after me," Sasuke stated, "He must want my eyes. If he's to learn all jutsu in the world, what better way than to have eyes that only need to see the technique or hand seals once to copy it."

"Which is why I use seals or no seals at all, instead of hand seals," Naruto said, "Since he's potentially after you and the village can't help us right now. It looks like we're on our own for the time being. Don't worry Sasuke, I'll make sure you keep your eyes."

"I'll help too," Sakura said.

"Hey, I'm not helpless you know," Sasuke said, "But thanks guys. I appreciate it."

"Good," Naruto said, "Well, I guess I'd best set up some more traps again.."

"You do that," Sasuke said, "Though could you attach some cords onto us just in case you plan on blowing the forest up again."

"Sure," Naruto said and did just that, before going about setting up even more explosive traps in the areas that he had placed traps previously. It would soon be raining metal and flooding flames in the forest, if Naruto had any say in the matter. He wanted to see how he would fare against the legendary nuke-nin of Konoha, he was sure that he could win the fight eventually, but he didn't really want to see his teammates bite off more than they could chew.

So for the time being he would wait for an actual genin to team to cause one of his other traps to activate, collect what they need, get the two mortals into the tower, then he could go snake hunting for the remainder of the exam.

It was on the second of the five days of the exam that a normal team activated a bunch of traps, the explosion was so strong that Sasuke and Sakura wondered if the team had managed to survive the blast. It was one of the flame ones that the team had stumbled upon, and Sakura could swear that she could feel the heat all the way from camp.

"That wouldn't happen to have been a nuke-nin would it?" Sakura asked.

"Nope," Naruto said, as he stood beside his teammates, "The nuke-nin wouldn't have been so careless, not after I did what I did."

"Then its a regular team," Sasuke said, "Do we go check it out? Or just the way we originally planned?"

"We all go check it out," Naruto said as he had a clone gather up and seal away their things into his storage seals, "With Orochimaru slithering about, I can't risk leaving either one of you to fend for yourselves against him."

"We know," Sasuke and Sakura said at the same time.

"So, we going yet?" Sasuke asked impatiently, he wanted to see some action and get away from the bloodline stealing nuke-nin.

"Sure," Naruto said, then began to lead his team to the blast zone where the traps had been detonated. When they arrived there all they found was one blood splatter, one burnt corpse, and one heavily but not mortally wounded kunoichi who wore camouflage attire. She was shaking in her boots in fright, her two teammates were dead and it was all because one of them had decided to blast away what seemed like a simple trap.

"Well...you don't see that everyday," Sasuke said, "So..are you going to do your" he did some air quotes "spoils of war thing?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, "I haven't gotten around to getting the first one to go about every day properly yet..though."

"Well, you really did a number on her, breaking her like that and all," Sasuke said.

"Partially my fault," Naruto said, "Only partially, Zabuza did most of the breaking for me."

"Where is she by the way?" Sasuke asked.

They weren't minding the Oto-nin that was sprawled on the ground who was gazing at the three of them in fear and terror, she could somehow feel whatever it was that the creatures of the forest felt when Naruto was around.

"Stasis Storage Seal," was Naruto's reply, "Its a seal designed to keep a person in stasis, like a hibernation like state."

"I see," Sasuke said, Sakura just wondered wondered what they were going to do and also if the scroll they might be needing was safe and intact, "So..the scroll..what are the chances of it still being whole?"

"Good," Naruto said, then pointed at the kunoichi, "She's still alive after all."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note 1: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc. (_this might include stuff that some people don't like in the stories they read for one reason or another_)

Note 2: Thanks to all the dudes and dudettes that reviewed, you guys and gals are part of the reason I love writing. So yeah! Thanks for the reviews, reading, and enjoying my stories!

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

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_**Chapter 9**_

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With their complete set of scrolls already with them, the trio wasted no time heading for the interior of the central tower of the Forest of Death, they no longer needed to stay within the forest proper after all. And with the permission of the other two members of the team, Naruto began his orchestra of flames and metal.

The forest was set aflame, resembling the sea of burning death that had consumed the training field where the team had had their bell test, which their sensei had been forced into passing them. There was also the rain of light to heavy metal that filled the air. An addition to the regular things that Naruto had on him at the time, and had used to set up the forest with, there was the additional clouds of hallucinogenic gas thaat were released in some areas.

These gas clouds were kind of like extremely long range versions of Naruto's suicide jutsu. His ghostly golden mist along with the bijuu chakra allowed him to tap into all elements through the use of seals, and thus he had been able to have flowers formed on the barks of some trees that would spew these gas clouds of hallucinogens that would cause illusionary pain in the ones that breathed it in. The actual jutsu was called Hijutsu: Gensou-tekina Doku no Hako or Secret Technique: Box of Illusionary Poison, an aptly named thing that the ghostly golden mist had provided along with some other trinkets that had yet to be discovered.

It was truly an orchestra of pain, lots of destruction, and some deaths. The deaths came for those that were not ready for it, and almost one of them had been a slithering snake that had been forced to rely and thank his years of experience on the battlefield to make it to be Tower alive. It was the most frightening experience he had ever gone through and hadn't expected something like that to happen in such a village.

Kirigakure or Iwagakure could have had something like it happen, but not Konoha. Never Konoha. It was that startling and frightening, especially since he didn't know about it, since none of his trusted and loyal spies had informed him about it, about the possiblitiy of something of this magnitude being within the village walls.

But even with such new and almost monkey wrenching information, he would not stall his invasion, he had put far too much time and effort to back out just because of something that could hinder his ambition, the destruction of the leaves. The thought even eventually crossed his mind that it was possible that he could use whatever had caused that Amaggedon like experience to his advantage.

Entering the tower the team immeidately mananged to crack the code and did what was necessary to pass the second portion of the exam. They were rewarded with Umino Iruka and Hatake Kakashi appearing before them and congratulating them on a job well done as well as being one of the first teams to arrive at the tower with their assigned mission completed. Though their sensei did cringe several times when he was informed on what had happened within the forest as well as finally having a solid answer as to what was still happening outside.

It was hours later when Naruto's little fun time ended in the forest. Lots of plant and animal life had been lost as well as a lot of human life.

The forest was a strange creature since it seemed to have an advanced healing factor of its own, that and some plants were actually immune to the fires that raged between their stems and trunks.

After speaking with the veteran ninja, the trio were directed to a room they could use for the remainder of their stay, as well as given directions to an indoor training field or room that they could use during their spare time. They were also told that they could leave the tower and wouldn't need a set of scrolls to get back in, since they had already passed the test, but it was ill advised that they do. Not that Naruto cared.

But even though he didn't care about any dangers, as they weren't even life threatening to him, he did have to stay with his teammates to make sure that nothing happened to them during their stay at the tower, he was their caring teammate after all. One that could be used as a literal meat shield, and training dummy when they needed it, and boy did Sakura need it.

Sakura had Sasuke convince Naruto into being their training dummy, or rather her training dummy since she was the one that needed the training badly. Sasuke not so much since he was more or less a prodigy.

Sakura tried to apologize to Naruto for hurting him, but stopped herself after she noticed him looking at her as if she was stupid. She had forgotten it seemed that he was a suicidal masochist. With him as her training partner, she didn't have to care all that much about his health and could actually go out, kunoichi killing mode style.

Sasuke played analyst, he helped out with Sakura's training verbally while Naruto did the physical part. He noticed the flaws in his female teammates attacks and movements with his eyes and pointed them out to her, explaining or just stating outright what was wrong with what she was doing and how better to improve. It was their team training.

No one dared enter the training room when the three of them were in it, not after one person, a Chuunin had stumbled upon the three and witnessed how brutal the pink-haired kunoichi could get when she went literally all out. Sasuke had been stunned speechless when he first witnessed her strength and just why she had chosen to walk the path of the Doton.

Kakashi would have been proud of the leaps and bounds his female student was making in her progress in becoming a more competent kunoichi, as well as a more disentisized one when it came to blood, guts, and gore. Naruto's innards flying all over the place was a good way to get someone used to the sight.

When the trio wasn't training, sleeping, eating, or chatting, the two normal genin tried to see how many ways they could think of to kill Naruto. Since he didn't really mind, they made it a game.

Sasuke even had the balls to invite the unstable Suna-nin, Sabaku no Gaara, to their room to test out how good he was at killing. Needless to say the redhead failed and for some reason saw the trio as his first friends, and also gained a rather healthy fear of Naruto since his _mother_ who he knew and recognized as being the Ichihbi no Shukaku was scared shitless of the ghostly golden mist that escaped from the blonde every time he returned to life.

The Suna Jinchuuriki found someone like him, a brother not in blood but in burden, along with two people that had the potential to understand him. He also saw their strength, since they didn't have any qualms about kicking him in the nads when he tried to off one of the more mortal ones in the room.

Anyone that scared Shukaku was worth having as an ally and as a friend. With the new friendship formed, Gaara shared what information he had on the incoming invasion, but asked that his three friends keep quiet about their relationship, since he had a reputation to keep. He didn't want to look soft all of a sudden.

Naruto's immortality was one of the village's few well kept secrets, and thus how two monsters became friends was made known hardly anyone would believe it. It was a difficult thing to grasp after all, especially without having witnessed the atrocity first hand.

Finally the time came for all the participants of the exam to participate in the third part of the advancement exam. Most of the teams that made it that far into the exams were from Konoha, not really all that surprising or it wouldn't be if Naruto hadn't done what he did to the forest.

The teams that made it were Kakashi's team, Kurenai's team, Asuma's team, Baki's team, Gai's team, Kabuto's team(minus Kabuto who decided to give up), and a team from Amegakure.

There was the traditional introduction to the final leg of the advancement exam, followed by the rules of the preliminaries given the sheer number of genin that had made it so far, there needed to be one. Those that had been itching for a fight with an audience present were going to be getting that fight.

There was a random selection machine, one that would chose who among the hopefuls would be fighting who.

With the teams on the upper balcony and the Hokage and the rest of the watchers on the ground floor, the proctor called out the first two combatants.

Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi

"Show no mercy," Naruto told his teammate, "In this exam, there are no friends on the battlefield, only enemies."

"Very well," Sasuke said, "Though I do hope you show some restraint when facing one of us."

"Yeah, Naruto," Sakura added, "You going all out on anyone is overkill."

Their brief conversation was not lost on the jounins that were present. Those that were not in the know wondered what the two genin meant, somehow they knew that they would eventually find out thus didn't bother asking their questions at that moment.

Sasuke jumped down to the arena and waited for his opponent to do the same. Kabuto had some words of advice for his teammate, ones that would do nothing to help the man when it came time to do battle.

"You two already know the rules," the proctor said, "So..on my mark...BEGIN!"

The two combatants jumped away from one another, giving each other just enough space to observe their opponent, and find the best way to strike. There were sayings about who made the first move, sayings that said things about the one that makes the first move is the loser or the winner. Not that any of those things mattered, especially in this fight.

'_Konoha-nin, don't kill their own,_' Yoroi mentally reminded himself, it would not do to show that he had what it took to take down one of his allies, it would not be a good thing to show since it could make people distrust him enough to find out about his being a traitor, '_Plus, Orochimaru-sama wants this kid._'

'_Naruto said no mercy, so no mercy it is,_' Sasuke on the otherhand thought, no mercy meant winning no matter what. His grin turned feral as he gazed at his opponent, those on the second floor didn't know what it meant, but team Kakashi knew that it meant nothing good for his opponent.

Yoroi didn't like that grin, he didn't like it at all. He felt as if he was being mocked by the upstart, and thus would show the little hooligan his place by being the first one to attack.

Sharingan blazed to life as the two combatants quickly closed the distance between each other. Yoroi with an outstretched hand ready to drain the Uchiha dry, and Sasuke fist ready to connect with the outstretched hand. But it was not his fist that his opponent should have worried about, it was the very fact that the genin had a thin layer of elemental chakra coating his entire body, like some sort of armor.

When the two genin finally clashed, Yoroi was flung backwards, while Sasuke floated in place, he was being held up by all the hot air that had formed around him thanks to all the fire and lightning that raced around his form. He was like a demon or devil shrouded in lightning and flame. While his opponent was almost a smoldering ruin from coming into contact with the chakra draining technique.

It was a pain in the ass for Sasuke to use, but he had agreed to the no mercy rule. So he had to just grin and bear it.

There was a zero gravity space beneath the lower of his two feet, the one closer to the ground. It was what was also really keeping him in the air, a few inches above the ground anyway. It was an unexpected move, one that even he had not anticipated would happen.

He wore lightning like a sheet of armor over his body, while fire danced around his ankles, wrists, neckline, and unsurprisingly hair.

"Kakashi," Gai said, "My hip rival. What have you been teaching your student?"

"Not that," Kakashi replied, for it was indeed an idea that Sasuke had come up with all on his own, "Definitely not that."

"I see," Gai said, then went back to his team of cute little munchikins.

"I didn't think he could do that," Naruto said, "Its almost like some sort of transformation technique, but I sense that it is taking its toll on his reserves."

"I know that," Sakura admitted, "He helped me come up with something like that too, you know...so that we wouldn't be much of a burden to you."

Back with Sasuke, he knew that he was running low on charka, something which he would do his very best to eliminate such a problem in the near future.

"I don't really have much time left," Sasuke stated, before shooting forth and plunging a scorching hot fist into the still recovering veteran's gut. It was so sudden and brutal that the man had failed to put up any sort of defense.

The white's of Yoroi's eyes could be clearly seen as it was the only thing remaining that could be seen as his eyes rolled back. He fell unconscious as not only was the wind knocked out from his lungs, but his will to press on as well. It had been far too much for him to handle, lightning added to the flaming fist to his gut, had been more than enough to plunge his world into darkness.

"Winner by knockout," the proctor announced, "Uchiha Sasuke! MEDICS!"

The medics took the poor soul that had suffered from just two punches, admittedly one of them was a backfired one of his own, but the damage had been done and he was down for the count. It was a good thing that the match had been called too, since Sasuke fell face first to the ground once his chakra finally decided that he had had enough for one bout.

It was rather surprising that Sakura was the one who caught him before his face impacted with the ground. It was like shunshin, when it really was just Naruto giving her a quite boost in speed by maneuvering her using some chakra strings. Gaara almost acted as well, but remembered himself and simply nodded at Naruto in thanks, for helping their mutual friend while he could not.

When Sakura got Sasuke up to the second floor, the proctor announced who would be the second batch of combatants. Sakura should have just remained in the area since her name was called, and her opponent was Yamanaka Ino.

"Begin!" the proctor announced.

Sakura didn't even let Ino begin to taunt her or anything of that sort. She just attacked, she too had agreed tot he no mercy thing. It also helped move things along. Who cared about pointless talking, sure one could win with words, but she wasn't in the mood to listen to Ino try and break her will by using words of any sort. The blonde girl really only had one jutsu of use in her arsenal while Sakura walked the path of the Doton.

An doton chakra covered fist is what met Ino's face as soon as the match began. A thin layer of rocks had formed like knuckle dusters too which gave the punch even more damage potential.

The blonde haired girl didn't stand a chance. She hadn't thought of the possibility of her civilian family'ed former best friend would have gone over her head and gotten better than a ninja clan heiress. It was just something that she couldn't accept nor comprehend, so with that confusion in mind and her inability to read her opponent's movements or retaliate for that matter, she lost.

It was plain and simple. She simply lost, even as Sakura punched her with another chakra powered fist in the gut for good measure.

"Winner Haruno Sakura! MEDIC!" the proctor announced, then when Ino was taken away and Sakura was back on the second floor with her team the proctor called out the next two fighters, "Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, will you please come down for your match!"

Kiba wasted no time and jumped the railings landing on all fours like the beast he could be. He decided to taunt his foe even as Naruto walked down the stairs, taking his time to get to the arena, looking as if he didn't have a care in the world. Which in a manner of speaking was a bit true.

"See Akamaru, we get a pass! This is going to be so easy! All we gotta do is kick this loser's ass and we'll bein the finals!" Kiba said with as much arrogance as he could put into his words, he really did believe that he was the top dog in the event.

"Whenever you're ready," Naruto stated as he stood before Kiba, looking even more bored than Kakashi ever could look, "All I've been hearing are yips and feeling hot air. Are you just going to talk me to defeat, or are you going to fight?"

"Inuzuka Kiba versus Uzumaki Naruto...BEGIN!" the proctor said and jumped away, he had been warned by the Hokage to keep away from Naruto during a fight, it was less painful that way.

"Tch, so what if your two teammates have gotten strong," Kiba taunted, "A loser will always be a loser."

"Have you been taking lessons from Hyuga Neji? I hear he's fate's bitch," Naruto countered.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kiba demanded, not liking that Naruto wasn't getting pissed off and just answered rebutted his statement with a question that could also be taken as an insult.

'_I am no one's bitch, Fate decided that I be superior to these insects...but why do I feel like I should be more confident in my own abilities instead of arguing mentally with that made statement,_' Neji couldn't help but mentally say.

"I am no loser," Naruto calmly stated, "I am merely a young man seeking a dream. I fear not death, I welcome it! But you on the otherhand...why am I wasting my time talking to you when we should be fighting."

"That's what I was gonna ask," Kiba said, "Since I'm just going to end up kicking your ass anyway."

"You can try little boy," Naruto taunted in return, "But like so many others, you will ultimately fail."

"Akamaru," Kiba called out to his partner in battle and in most things, "Let's shut this loser up and get to the finals!"

"Arf!" it was an affirmative bark.

"Whenever you're ready," Naruto stated as he got into a relaxed looking stance, which was really just him standing there looking bored.

"I was born ready," Kiba said, "And just so you know. Your dream whatever it is, you can shove it up your loser ass since it'll **NEVER** ever happen. Once a loser, always a loser. I bet the reason you don't have any parents is because they threw you away when the doctor told them that you were a loser."

Kiba clearly wasn't one with any brains, or emphatic abilities. Sure he understood that an angry enemy was an easier to beat enemy. But that only really applied to normal people.

"Kurenai," Kakashi said as he approached the red eyed woman, "My condolences. You better hope Hayate gets to your genin in time, or the Hokage intervenes or something."

"What are you talking about Kakashi," Kurenai asked, clueless to the severity of the situation, "I know my student is a bit out of line, but that's life I guess not that I approve of it, but how bad can your student's retaliation be?"

"You know what he is right," Kakashi said.

"Yes...shit," it dawned on her that her student had just pissed off a jinchuuriki, one that held within him the most powerful of all the tailed beasts, "I'll go...talk to the Hokage..."

"Too late," Kakashi said.

"What'd I miss?" Sasuke asked as he finally regained consciousness, he'd only fainted from chakra exhaustion and the medics didn't think they needed to take him with them.

"Kiba-baka just pissed off Naruto with a comment about his dream and something about his parents not wanting him," Sakura supplied.

"Oh Kami," Sasuke said, "Does he have a death wish? Naruto turned the forest of death into a microwave oven of death! How can that mutt think that pissing Naruto off be a good tactic!"

"I know, right," Sakura said, "I mean, really. That's like baiting a shark with a tub of blood while being in the water with it."

Back on the first floor...

"Pray that someone comes to save you," Naruto said, "For I shall not be holding back."

"Whatever loser," Kiba taunted, not really concerned with how close his death was coming for him.

Akamaru sensed it, he sensed the underlying and rising killing intent. He knew that he and his partner were screwed, and if it weren't for the fact that he was already screwed. He would have already run for it. He tried warning Kiba about the dangers of taunting Naruto like he had, but it had all fallen on deaf ears.

Pain beyond measure exploded in the two most sensitive areas of his body. Kiba didn't think it was possible to know such pain. But all it had taken was for Naruto to simply vanish from his starting position, to appearing a mere inch in front of the dog-lover.

It was just a flick on the nose, but it felt like a hundred thousand smacks by a very very big rolled up newspaper. He also felt what had initially just been a knee tap on his groin area, one which quickly evolved into what it must or would have felt like to live through having one's genitals be processed through meat grinder with them still attached to one's body.

This ungodly pain was followed by what he could only assume were the death wails of every single one of his sperm cells dying most painful deaths, and his future sons and daughters being taken away from him. His pride as a man was being stripped from him cell by cell.

He was a hot blooded male, and thus he felt his blood come to a boil, and tiny part of his brain wondered how he was still alive with all this pain that he was feeling.

The pain fogged up his mind, all he knew was the pain. He failed to notice that all Naruto was doing was touching him and tying him up, before stripping him.

To the spectators it was the most bizzare fight they had ever seen. Most had expected Naruto to be beating his opponent up for the comments that had been directed at him. Instead what they got was Naruto doing as he please and Kiba not doing anything about it.

The pain was after all, just in his mind. Tricking the mind was one of Naruto's specialities after all. Though the blonde did remember to silence his opponent as to not give anything away.

By the time the pain finally receeded, Kiba found himself bound, gagged, and naked in the middle of the area, with Naruto standing before him fully clothed.

"I will not tolerate anyone badmouthing my dream," Naruto coldly stated, anyone that heard his words could clearly feel the ice in them, "Let this be a lesson to you Inuzuka. Piss me off, and well... The next time you will have even less than your life."

"Tch.." Kiba spat at the blonde's feet, defiant to the bitter end, enraged beyond belief and still wondering how he was still alive and conscious with all the pain he had just endured. Any other man would have died already, so in Kiba's mind he was more than any other man, "Once I get out of these ropes, I'll kick your ass, mark my words! And when I'm done kicking your ass I'll see your ass raped by the sickest motherfucker I can find! So you can take your threats and shove them up your ass! The same place your crummy dream is!"

"Oh, you want more pain do you," Naruto said and moved to the one end where he had a clear shot of the other teen's precious jewels, "I'll give you what you're politely asking for."

"I thought you said that my student was a dead man?" Kurenai asked Kakashi, who was suddenly huddled in a corner with his two students, "Kakashi? What's wrong?"

"AAAAHHHH!" Kiba shouted, and his shout turned from very manly to very high pitched.

All Naruto had done was kicked him, the kick was so strong that the last thing that Kiba knew or felt was the bursting pain of his precious jewels being smashed into squished grapes by Naruto's kick. Naruto would not be held accountable for his actions during the fight. It was the Chuunin exams after all, and there was an agreement in place that allowed killing, so why not castration.

"AAAHHH!" Kiba screamed again due to Naruto kicking him in that place a second time. The result was a small weiner being separated. While the medics would be able to reattach the appendage, there would be very little that they would be able to do about the eggs. Though they could put them under stasis of sorts until a more experienced medic-nin could try and patch things up. The chance of recovery were slim to none though, and just as painful as having them nigh irreparably destroyed.

"Never insult Naruto's dream," Shino monotonously stated as his entire being and hive shivered, he crossed his legs to protect his precious twins too, a subconscious action repeated by the other males in attendance.

"Is it over?" Kakashi asked, he had his eyes shut tight, and Sasuke did so too.

Sakura was just with them to provide whatever comfort she could for two of her boys.

"AAHH!" Kiba screamed again, this time not because Naruto had kicked him, but because Naruto had shoved a scroll up his ass, it was one of the extras that Naruto had managed to stumble upon in the forest. This meant that it was probably very very dirty, and that Kiba would need to suffer through a fill medical examination due to the possibility of having contracted some form or sort of disease.

"Sa-ku-ra," Sasuke managed to stutter out, "I-Is it over?"

She wouldn't be answering him any time soon due to having fainted along with a number of other people. Blood, guts, and gore, were one thing, but what Naruto was doing was clearly something even more heinous and despicable indeed. It was as if he had just cracked. Cracked in an even worse way.

"Hayate! CALL THE MATCH!" the Hokage shouted the order, he was barely holding onto the land of the living at what he was seeing.

"W-Winner NARUTO! MEDICS!" Hayate shouted before running out of the hall and into the nearest bathroom.

"Oh phoey," Naruto said, disappointed that he wasn't able to finish the punishment of the little pup, "I was just about to relieve myself too."

"N-Naruto," the Hokage said, calling the genin over.

"Hai?" the blonde said, rather cheerfully, clearly a sign that he was more mentally unbalanced than most of the time.

"Next time...how should I put this..." the Hokage thought for a bit, "Just kill him. It would save the rest of us the trouble of seeing such a spectacle."

"Sorry Jiji," Naruto apologized, sincerely too, "I'll do that next time."

"Good," the Hokage said, "See that you do that. Now get back to your team. These prelims aren't over yet you know."

It took awhile for Hayate to return and for the med-nins to claim that they had saved and put in stasis all that they could save and put in stasis. Kiba wouldn't be walking around or making lewd comments for a while.

While the remaining genin didn't look too well, the exam had to continue irregardless of their mental states.

Though they rather continue on, if it meant getting away from the grinning blonde in their midst. Naruto couldn't help but admire his handywork. There was just something about it that made him smile. Though he did apologize to his teammates for making them go through seeing what he had done.

"Naruto..." Kakashi said.

"I know," Naruto said, "Jiji already told me."

"Good," Kakashi said, "See that you do that," repeating the Sandaime's words.

"That was brutal," Sasuke said, leaning against the wall for support, he would not show any more weakness before his merciless teammate, for that was what Naruto seemed to be at present.

"No mercy," Sakura said, "Right?"

"I'm still sorry I put you guys through that," he told them.

"Just.." Sakura began to say.

"I know, I know," Naruto said, and the four of them continud to watch how things progressed.

The fights after Naruto's own weren't so spectacular, though Gaara owning his fight up until the last moment of Lee's consciousness was as good as it got. There was also the fight between Neji and Hinata, Neji owning the fight, and Naruto could have sworn that the blue tintend haired girl moaned in pleasure instead of in pain whenever she was painfully struck.

He had a feeling he was at fault when it came to that girl for some reason.

The finals turned out to be an ally versus ally fight, as none of the non-Konoha or Suna teams had made it into the finals.

The match ups were thus:

**Naruto vs Neji**

**Sakura vs Chouji**

**Shikamaru vs Temari**

**Sasuke vs Kankuro**

**Shino vs Gaara**

They were given a month to prepare for the finals, that month would also be used by the village to prepare for the arrival of foreigners that were sure to come for the finals.

Kakashi took Sasuke and Sakura with him to train while leaving Naruto to his own devices. The blonde genin had decided that he would be doing missions during the one month of free time. Suicide missions that the Hokage had already prepared for him, even giving him a schedule for free time.

The blonde had also been given the go-ahead with regard to his spoils of war or conquest thing. There were no laws against it in all the land after all. This allowed Naruto to continue. But before that, the Hokage asked to meet these persons that Naruto had acquired. While the old man didn't dare go against Naruto when it came to his property, he could at least make sure that these persons would be treated right. Or as right as possible given how insane Naruto could get.

He may be Hokage, but even he knew that making an enemy out of Naruto was a very, very, very, very bad idea.

He also thought of getting one of his students involved, Jiraiya was after all still the blonde's godfather, even though the man didn't really do a very good job of being one. There was still a chance to try and see what would happen.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note 1: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

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_**Chapter 10**_

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The first thing on Naruto's to-do list was to get the two girls he'd collected out of stasis. It just wouldn't be humane to leave them in there until the day he died after all, how would their souls pass on since they existed in a realm separate, somewhat, from his own. No one would be able to get to them.

That last thought was followed by a hint of both sadness and hope due to his one true dream and ambition was to do just that. Die. Sad, but true. The one thing any immortal would wish after a long long time was the one thing that, most, would not be able to get. Due to a number of different reasons, one of which was that they were immortal.

Now Naruto, he was a different breed of immortal altogether, he had the protection, and curse of sorts, of one of the most powerful Beings in all of existence, and the burden that his very own father had decided to saddle him with was the root cause of all his pain and suffering at the hands of the shinigami refusing to let him pass on.

The two girls hadn't been very cooperative after he had released them from their forced slumbers. One of them just stared at him like he was the devil himself, while the other...ok...the other did that too, but that was only for a few scant second before she tried crawling pathetically backwards, and as far away from him as possible.

Seeing that he lived in a warehouse, one of several, she crawled pretty far before her back bumped into a wall. A wall that was just as solid as she was and one that would not budge no matter how little or a lot she put into her crawling.

It was pathetic by his standards really.

He had one girl that just stared at him irresponsibly, even after he had kicked her a few times to see if she'd cry out in pain, and another that was simply just too terrified of him to move an inch close enough to hear him give her a command, compliment, threat, praise, anything really.

It was rather frustrating, he had to get them to cooperate with him, or at the very least obey him if he was to present them to the Hokage for inspection or whatever the hell the old man wanted to see them for. He just hoped the old guy wasn't into young nubile flesh, that kinda freaked him out, and he was the freakiest bastard in all the village. The things in the forest of death feared him more than they feared fire and a whole bunch of other things.

It was probably his fault though, his fault that he had them undergo a really bad case of drug testing and experimentations in the form of weeding out the weak from the competition and trying to kill a very pesky garden variety S-class snake by the name of Orochimaru, who had yet to show hide or hair of himself in the village. It was quite...boring.

The only thing he had left for himself to do was pull out his golden mist chains and haul the farther away girl to right about a foot or two in front of him, have her float in the air so that she couldn't start crawling like her life depended on it again. With the other girl, the one that was relatively unresponsive, well he just put a collar, the dog kind, around her neck, attached a leash and had her follow him that way.

That second thing didn't really work out well since the girl had seemed to have lost the will to live, or do much of anything for that matter. She was like some sort of clean slate. He could probably have her gang raped by a bunch of wild and diseased zombies and she wouldn't bat an eyelash, or gag even. It was quite disturbing, even for him.

He was missing something, he was quite sure of it, and thus decided that if they weren't going to go to the Hokage, the old man would be the one to go to them. He left some clones in his stead to watch over the more or less comatose yet awake girl and the one that tried and tried, and would surely futilely tried to get away from him.

When he got back he regretted not giving his clones specific instructions as to what they would be doing with the two...tools. He was rather shocked, and mildly disturbed at what his clones could get up to when he left them alone with two, odd, girls for a lengthy period of time.

The only reason it was lengthy was because he had to wait in line for the Hokage to see him. Damn the old man and finally trying to defeat his most hated enemy. Paperwork.

He had expected some semblance of peace and order. What he got made the old man go over the deep end for a few minutes. It took all of his sheer will power to resist taking the old man up on his offer to become the Godaime Hokage. The old man had lost it for those few minutes, who in their right mind would offer him such a prestigious position in life. He would be in charge of a whole village of people that would be lawfully forced into following his every whim, his every wish, his every command.

Though he did regret his decision when one of the accompanying Anbu commented that he could have ordered the whole village to try and kill him in any and every single way they could think of possible and he would still protect them from any threat to the village that was discovered during his reign.

All those missed opportunities, but there would be enough of eternity to mope about such things in the future. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

The girls.

"Well, from what I can see," the Hokage said, this was after the clones had been...controlled or dispelled or both of course, "The two girls are in good condition. Physically speaking that is. What I want to know is what you plan on doing with them? I've already seen what your clones can do to and with them. I want to know your own personal plans and not the things you'd come up with if left on your own for a precariously long time alone with them."

"Well I was thinking," Naruto said, "Since they're both legally my slaves and therefore my property, I was going to have Haku, the unresponsive one become one of my ninja tools, like she was back with her old owner. While the Oto girl whose name I still have no clue about would become my maid, I guess. I mean she doesn't even look anywhere remotely ready for battle or wanting to fight even."

"So...a ninja tool and a...maid?" the Hokage asked, he wanted to be sure he heard right, his Anbu guard, who wouldn't be able to do jack if Naruto wanted to hurt and kill any of them, had other things running through their depraved and rather sick minds, but they dared not voice such things in the presence of their leader and the one teen that could potentially survive the end of the world and complain that he hadn't died with everyone else.

"Alright," the Hokage decided, "I'll have their registration papers and all that prepared by tomorrow morning. Be sure to pick them up, I'll be very busy for the remainder of the month after all and might not remember to have them sent to you, but don't worry about the filing, I'll save you the trouble of doing that too."

"Thanks old man," Naruto said, "Say...you wouldn't happen to know where I could get several sets of maid outfits now would you?"

"..." the Hokage did not want to answer that question since he knew several places that could provide the blonde with such clothing, custom tailored to the girl or girls that would be using them. He didn't really want to be the one to give Naruto the Talk after all, since those places had a lot to do with the Talk.

"Jiji?" Naruto poked the old man to get his attention, no pain involved though since this was his friend and grandfather figure of sorts after all, "You still in there?"

"I'm alive and well, and you'd do to remember that," the Hokage said as he was snapped out of his inner debate on whether or not he should help the blonde with his errands.

"About those uniforms, and clothes too, yeah, clothes for them would be great too," Naruto added.

"You remember Anko, right?" the Hokage asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said, he could surely never forget such a freaked out woman, "That's one woman I'm not likely to forget for a long long time."

"Good, good," the old man said, "That is very very good news. I'll have her purchase whatever supplies you need. No need for you to have to visit any of those places after all."

"If you're referring to shops found in the red light district, I know all I need to about them already," Naruto stated, "No worries about that dreaded talk of yours. I've had it already, in every way humanly possible. That and the shinigami told me all about it just so that I'd get back in my reformed body that ONE time."

"Uh...ok...well at least now you know where I was thinking of you getting your supplies," the old man said, "But I must insist that Anko be the one to get them.."

"You're not trying to dump one of your more mentally unhinged tokubetsu jounin in my lap are you?" Naruto had to ask. He just had to.

"No," the Hokage said, "Its just my solution to getting back some of the screws she lost witnessing your...revivals."

"Fine," Naruto said, "She can be the one to buy all the stuff you think I'll be needing, you can take it out of my next paycheck, S-ranks pay a lot anyway."

"Yes they do," the Hokage agreed, "Is there anything else you need of me?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, "You know anywhere I can get some padding for walls, along with furniture, cheap?"

"In need of some fixing up cheap," the Hokage asked, "Or used, but not used enough to need fixing cheap?"

"The first one, but not about the padding," Naruto replied.

"The Dump," the Hokage said, "No pay needed, since we usually just have someone destroy the things that are not needed and recycle the things that could still be of use but don't need much manpower in fixing or reusing. As for the padding...how much do you need?"

"About enough to cover my whole old apartment thrice over," Naruto replied.

"I'll have a C-ranked mission done in your name to get what you'll be needing for whatever nefarious plot you have planned in that head of yours," the Hokage said, "I'll take it out of your next paycheck, which will be later in the evening since I've already got a mission for you."

"Really? What is it?" Naruto excitedly asked.

"The Hyuga clan is in need of a dummy to practice their more devastating techniques on for whatever reason," the Hokage informed him, "I told Hiashi that I had something he could use, but it required his entire clan to submit to agreeing to sign a number of contracts that would make them forced to keep their silence. He agreed to that, and the hefty sum you'll be getting as compensation. It was really a pride thing on Hiashi's part."

"So...I'm to be their punching bag?" Naruto asked.

"Pretty much," the old man stated.

"Sounds like fun," Naruto said, still happily, "I could use a restock."

"You do know that this mission has a zero percent chance of you dying, right?" the old man asked, he was curious as to why the blonde was so happy about having such a mission. He was sure that Naruto would have argued about the no dying bit some.

"Yeah, but that's not really a downside," Naruto said, "I've come to terms, sort of, with my affliction. If and when its my time, it will be my time, until then. I'll just enjoy what I've got...though I'll still try to find some shortcut to my dream. As for this being something to be happy about, well, I'll be fighting one of them in the finals. Might as well make that single one know just how hard it will be to keep me down. Heh heh."

"Thank your for that information," the old man said, "Have fun. I'll be rooting for you in the finals, all subsequent missions for you will be delivered by word of mouth by one of my trusted Anbu, and if they aren't so trustworthy to you, feel free to eat whoever approaches you."'

"Thanks a lot Jiji!" Naruto happily said, before sending a bunch of clones to the Dump to get everything that he would need and some extra, it was always good to have extra.

With the Hokage gone, Naruto had a few minutes left to see about getting the two girls to cooperate with him.

He though long and hard, in his mindscape, until he stumbled upon a solution.

He had a tool, a very useful tool at his disposal now. Going with that flow of thought, he acted.

"Say Haku," Naruto said as he crouched down in front of the kimono clad girl, "He may have discarded you, but I'm more than willing to pick you back up. I could use you, and you do want to have a purpose once again, don't you? Someone to serve?"

She actually reacted by looking up at him, at his face at that last question or offer. Something awoke in her, something that had lain dormant. It was a tiny flickering flame, a shard of the crystal of hope within her. She hoped that it wasn't all a dream, that this person that had been part of the reason why she no longer had a purpsoe in living was not lying to her.

"A deadman has no use for a living tool," Naruto continued, "But a living one, has much use for one with your talents. So how about it? Be the tool of this master, and I'll keep you at my side til my dying day."

That last bit could use some work, but he didn't think revising it was necessary. He was a ninja after all, they lied, and it was definitely a kind of lie, since he was the immortal here and not her.

She continued to look, searching for a hint of deceit and actually failed to find any. Thinking it a dream she unconsciously produced a lone ice needle and proceeded to impale a digit with it, the pain would more than prove that it was real and that she was not dreaming all of this up.

With a confirmation from the pain that was sure to go away, she nodded her head in affirmation to his offer. She was now his in every way, to do with as he pleased, as long as she could be of use to him. She liked that, having a purpose. It was nice, and it made her simplistic self, happy.

A small smile made its way to her lips, as she sat up and looked more attentive and a slight bit more alive than before the short conversation.

One down, another one to go.

"I know of your connection to Orochimaru," Naruto stated to his floating captive.

She whimpered in such a way that clued him into the fact hat she was more afraid of him, terrified, horrified, and all that, than able to even hear him speaking. It was as if her mind could not hope to comprehend that she was in the presence of a human, albeit an immortal one, but still a very much human person. One with hopes and dreams, even though they leaned more towards dying.

So he slapped her around some to get her attention focused solely on the present. Focused on him, and his manic grin, his patience with her wearing thin.

"You listen and listen well, girl," he growled out menacingly, his bijuu chakra rising to just beneath his skin, "I spared your life, when I could have just ended it. You owe your continued existence to me. You will stop acting like such a pathetic insect," his voice and tone growing even more sinister, "You will know your place. Serve me well and you might be treated better than Orochimaru ever treated you. Fail to show me your worth, and I might have to resort to...well, your mind is a sewer filled with all the things I might do."

She shivered in his grip, involuntarily jerking here and there thanks to her fear of him, this monster before her. This demon of fire and illusion.

"If you understand me and agree to willingly serve," Naruto stated, his voice growing firm but losing the dark tint to his tone, "Then tell me the name I am to address you by."

"Kin," the girl tremblingly replied, "Tsuchi Kin..."

The grip around her tightened, she was not over her fear of him, since she now fully believed that no matter how far she hid, he would always find her. He, and his ghostly golden chain, would surely be able to find her. She feared that he'd be able to acquire her even in death, and she did not want to die.

"Call me master," he ordered her, uncharacteristically so.

"Yes, master," she reluctantly said, finally resigned to her fate as his slave.

"Good," Naruto said, his voice returning to what it normally was, "I will be leaving the two of you," he addressed them both, "Since I have a mission to attend to. A woman will be stopping by later who will be bringing you on a short shopping spree. She will be purchasing you clothes and anything else you will be needing. I'm sure the Hokage has already or will already have given her a list, but if there is something that you fancy getting, feel free to get it. Make sure this trip counts, I might not be so generous in the future."

With those words said, he turned his back to them, and left the warehouse with nary a care in the world. He passed by the first of his many errand running clones returning with some things from the Dump.

He made his way to the Hyuga clan compound, or district really. Once there he informed the Hyuga guards on duty that he had an appointment with their clan head regarding a training dummy for their clan's taijutsu style.

One of them remained at the gate with Naruto, while the other went off in search of their clan head for instructions as to what to do with the blonde. They couldn't just ignore him, as he could be telling the truth after all. The man returned a moment later with their clan head, who motioned for Naruto to walk beside him on their way to the training ground.

"So you will be the one providing us with the training dummies?" Hiashi asked him.

"In a manner of speaking," Naruto said, "Though I wouldn't go so far as to providing you with plural targets."

"Oh? The Hokage assured me that my clan would be getting something that could be used over and over again," Hiashi said, "One that would be able to withstand even our more devastating techniques."

"Which is why I'm here," Naruto stated, "I'm your training dummy. The walking talking training post. Once this training of yours begins, you'll know why the Hokage chose me for this mission."

"We shall see," Hiashi said, "I know you will be fighting my nephew in the finals. If you perish during this mission, it will be no one's fault but your own at believing you have what it takes to take on our more destructive techniques and survive."

"Think what you will, Hyuga," Naruto said, "But by the end of this mission you will wish our relationship had started on better terms."

When they had finally arrived, Naruto was ordered to stand in the center of the training ground. Then Hiashi ordered those that were to be using Naruto to show him, the clan head, what they were capable of. He ordered them to show no mercy to their training dummy, going so far as to say that it was a Hokage sanctioned exercise. Which in a manner of speaking it was.

They did as ordered.

They were a kind of graduting batch of Jyuken students really. Not the whole clan training at one time. Just members of the clan that were learning the more devastating techniques fo their clan's style of fighting. It was a mixed class of main and branch house members, all of them no older than 20. But all of them clearly able to deal quite a lot of damage.

They had studied well and studied hard. Mastering and memorizing quite a lot of information. This was to be their gradutation exam from the level that they were still in to a higher one with more techniques to learn and much more discipline to develop.

When one of all of them, simultaneously delivered a killing strike, they all stopped to look at their handywork. Hiashi on the other hand activated his clan's doujutsu to see what what was happening within the blonde and how a corpse could continue standing.

What he saw made his blood run cold and his skin go even paler than it already was. His clansmen had the same reaction as they finally bore witness to the miracle or horror that had been taking place before their very almost all seeing eyes. It was a terrible sight to see, one with no rhythm or flow or reason at all that they could find or think of.

Every injury repairing itself within moment of being received. Even an exploded heart reformed itself almost instantly from being burst due to a powerful strike diected at it. Lungs punctured and should have been irreparably destroyed fixed themselves. And it all happened within a matter of mere seconds.

After managing to reign in his emotions and regain his stoicness, Hiashi addressed the class.

"Since our...training post still lives and breathes regardless of the fact that it shouldn't even be possible," the clan head said, he was still very much unnerved by the event, but not as much as Anko of course since what she had borne witness to had been even more surreal, "I want each of you to demonstrate all that you have learned. State what you are about to do before doing it. I will announce who shall advance and who shall have to remain at the current level and be passed on to another teacher, once all of your have finished."

It took them the rest of the day to get the testing over and done with. Hiashi even demonstrated what the ones that passed would be learning under him, as well as what the others that failed would be missing out on. It was incentive for both groups to want to better themselves, make them greater in the eyes of the clan head.

Naruto, who should have been a mere stain on the ground students before that, had just remained in place. As he had been ordered to. The only order he'd probaly not ever be able to fulfil was to die, something which he would have gladly tried to do again and again and again.

Hiashi personally walked the genin back to the gate, something which he rarely ever did even for respected guests. There was a very short list of individuals who had ever been escorted out of the compound personally by this particular clan head.

"I thank you for the secret that you have shared with my clan," Hiashi told him as they reached the gate, "I shall inform the Hokage if I am ever again in need of your services."

"Err, thanks," Naruto said.

"The night is still young," Hiashi said, "Enjoy the rest of the evening, and thank you once again."

Naruto had managed to change the man, somewhat, and somehow. Whether or not the change would be a welcome one or not was too early to be seen. Hiashi and his students and former students would never be the same ever again. Not after finding out Naruto's secret.

The man had done everything in his power, including performing a variation to his clan's style that he had been keeping secret for a very very long time, just to see about actually confirming that someone could't be that resilient to death. His logical mind could not comprehend the possibility of a real immortal working for him. Since his logical mind couldn't accept it, it broke and reformed itself, but something had defintely changed. Only time would really tell what and to what extent it had changed.

"*"

When Anko had arrived to get the measurements of the girls she would be buying things for, she had not expected to find one girl practicing her fighting skills, while the other girl followed the orders of the clones with them.

She also hadn't expected one girl to be normal while the other to be a tad bit submissive. It was weird to say the least. What she had also expected was to find herself talking to the blonde immortal, something which she was happy that she didn't have to do, since even just thinking about him, and not his clones, had sent painful shivers running up and down her spine.

"Uhm..." Anko said, "I'm here to get the measurements of two girls...uh.."

"Haku, Kin," one clone stated, "Go with her, we'll remain here until the boss gets back. You already got his permission anyway."

The two younger girls followed the young woman out of the warehouse, and away from the disturbing district and into the red light district that wasn't that far away from them. The two girls wondered why they were there, they knew that they would be getting clothes, but wondered why there of all places. A bunch of men were even looking at them in ways that were relatively normal for Anko and the way she dressed.

They passed by many of the things that one would expect to find in such a district, and even more after they reached a shop that catered to their needs. Anko put everything they had gotten from that place in a storage scroll for each of them.

Anko, after finding out that the two girls were slaves of Naruto, decided that in order to please their immortal and very scary master, they needed some additional skill sets added to what they already knew. Cooking, cleaning, and probably fighting for him, were basic things. Pleasures in life were things that would surely be appreicated by him, plus it would surely get Anko some plus points in his book, and so he wouldn't come after her for her soul in the future for whatever reason she could cook up in that mind of hers.

Anko signed the two girls up for some classes for a bunch of extra curricular activities, some of which could actually be used on certain special kuniochi only missions. She would have to inform the Hokage about her personal decision though and hope for the best.

Anko returned the two girls, slightly overwhelmed girls, to the newly refurbished and renovated warehouse around the same time that Naruto returned from his mission. She decided to be honest with someone that could kill her in many many painful ways about what she had done for the two girls. He thanked her for thinking about their well being, and told the two girls that he expected them to master whetever it was that Anko had signed them up for. It was still his money that was paying for it all after all.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note 1: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 11**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

He needed to train that was certain. The finals were only several days away, sure he had some training under his belt, some stored pain as well, but he still had a tool that he needed to get to work alongside him while at the same time could follow his orders or instructions.

He had tried to take Haku with him on one of his S-rank missions, he actually almost failed the mission had it not been for the fact that it didn't matter if he left survivors or not. His little female tool had almost caused him to blow his cover while he was planting bombs all over the place. She was stealthy sure, but she wasn't used to working with someone quite as insane as Naruto.

That prompted him to train with her once he got back to the village, he trained with her personally as well as had clones do it when he needed to leave the village to perform the many missions that the Hokage would have otherwise been reluctant to have done.

His training with her was his molding her into a human puppet, not like those puppeteers of Suna that required their puppets to come alive with string, but a puppet that danced to his will, to his whim, to his thoughts or words alone. A glance, a look, a touch, a sound, a whistle, that was all he wished it would take for her to know how to move for him, how to sway for him, how to dance for him or whoever he chose for her to dance for.

Her ice heritage proved quite useful in the dances that he taught her, they were mostly things that he either picked up from somewhere, were provided by his gift and curse, or something that he created on a whim. He danced. She danced. They danced the dance of death.

He found out about what exactly were those extra lessons that Anko had signed up his girls for, and thanks to that knowledge he knew how to incorporate them into his tool's attack style. Even his maid benefited from them, though not a tool for outright battle, Kin would serve as a tool for those other battlefields.

He didn't need her to be present during a battle to be of immediate use to him, he had placed a seal at the back of her neck which acted as anchor by which he could summon her to him wherever in the world he found himself. It was tied to his blood, and he had gained the idea from some training that he had accidentally stumbled upon when he had passed by the back of the local hot springs.

The source of the accidental training was one Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Gama Sennin. The man had been kicked into the women's side of the baths when he chose to ignore that one blonde in all the village that one should not piss off. The Gama Sennin learned that there were worse fates than being pummeled by enraged kunoichi. That being an irritated Naruto sending jolts of pain and the illusion of death wails of sperm cells through kicking the white haired womanizer in the nads.

Later that day the white haired man had approached him, with the Hokage as protection from any more harm. The old man really wouldn't be able to do anything to stop Naruto if he went insane on them, more than usual of course, but it was the thought of having someone as powerful as the Hokage there for protection that counted the most when it came to the white haired summoner and sage.

The old man had the great idea that in order for the white haired man to be forgiven and not receiving the thrashing of a life time, he would teach the blonde haired monster how to summon. Perhaps even become the latest summoner of the Gama clan.

The blonde allowed himself to be taught, but he did not sign the contract outright, he first wanted to know how to perform the actual summoning.

Handseals. Drawing of blood. The seal script that appeared without explanation upon the ground. The summoned creature or item appearing from out of what seemed like thin air. He was shown and taught the simple yet energy consuming art.

Then he asked a question, that being what would happen if he tried to summon something, but having not signed a contract, he wanted to know what would appear. He wondered aloud if it had ever actually been done before.

The Hokage saw no harm in trying, and Gama Sennin was curious as well, he hadn't ever heard of a warning against trying such a thing.

There was just one thing that the Gama Sennin suggested before the summoning of nothing in particular was to take place, that suggestion being that the blonde use as much chakra as he could call forth and pour it into the technique. If he was to summon something, or manage to at least, it might as well be something big.

The Hokage had something to add as well, that they do it just at the outskirts of the village as to not attract too much unwanted attention if the blonde did manage to summon something.

Clones had been used of course to master the technique, and clone had also been dispatched to his warehouse in order to inform his two girls that he would be home late. Clones were also sent out to keep watch in areas that he believed that the Anbu were blind in. He didn't want the possibility of his most recent skill to be spied upon. Whatever the outcome would be.

It is said that a vast amount of chakra being gathered will grant onlookers a chance to actually see the chakra, the color of the energy. So it came to pass that Naruto's chakra burst forth from beneath his skin illuminating the afternoon landscape with its colorful glow.

Three words were spoken as a thumb was pricked to allow blood to freely flow, the hand was slammed into the ground.

A cloud of smoke covered the area, as the seal script sapped away at all the offered energy.

When the cloud finally dispersed there was no large summon boss standing before them, instead, perched on the blonde's shoulder was perhaps one of the most beautiful birds that the blonde and any of those there had ever seen in their entire lifetimes. It wasn't just that it was a bird of red and gold, but also that some of it's feathers seemed to be on fire.

Before any questions could be asked, all those present finally noticed another thing, one that put fear into the hearts of the mortals present and some manner of excitement into the blonde. Coiled around his legs was a brilliantly blue scaled serpentine creature, one with horns, long whiskers, and three clawed toes which each of its four limbs ended with.

With barely a motion of his fingers, the Anbu responded to their leader's order to search the area for anything else that might suddenly pop up. They returned moments later finding nothing else out of the ordinary. The Hokage had actually been expecting his forces to find some giant turtle and a white tiger too, but alas it was merely a flight of fancy.

"Uhh..." the blonde, for once, was at a loss for words, it was truly an unexpected turn of events.

"I guess he won't be signing the Gama contract.." Jiraiya commented.

"I believe...had it been anyone else we wouldn't be standing before a fushichou and a ryuu," the Hokage added.

"_Greetings summoner,_" the fushichou, or phoenix or fire bird, greeted Naruto from his own shoulder.

"_What she said,_" the ryuu, or dragon, said in greeting.

The phoenix was clearly the female of the duo, while the dragon was the male.

"Err...greetings," the blonde replied in kind.

"_We are sure that you are curious to know how you were able to summon us even without having signed our contracts,_" the phoenix said, "_Where are my manners, I am Hou-ou, named after a legend in my clan. A pleasure to meet the new summoner of my clan._"

"I'm Naruto," the blonde said, "Nice to meet you."

"_I am Watatsumi, named after a legend of my own clan,_" the dragon introduced himself, "_You were granted the ability to summon both of our clans due to your repeated ability to come back to life. Hou-ou's clan is known for this, they die and are reborn anew._"

"Ok...what about you, Watatsumi-san?" the blonde had asked, "What is your clan's reason for granting me the ability to summon you and your clan?"

"_We are your heritage on both sides of your blood,_" Watatsumi explained, "_Had you signed the Gama contract as your father had before you, you would not have been able to summon the two of us. Not that I am belittling the Gama clan, but what a waste this opportunity would have been. In your blood flows a history filled with whirlpools, waves, and storms._"

"I...see..." the blonde said, not really getting it.

"I see," the Hokage said, as he played with his goatee, he understood what the blonde apparently did not.

"_You know our names now, summon us when you have need,_" Hou-ou said, "_My clan boasts more healers than fighters.._"

"_My clan more fighters than healers,_" Watatsumi said, "_We shall be your personal summons, from each of our more divine clans, think of us and offer up far less chakra as well as blood next time. As your personal summons we will not need much, but our brothers and sisters and children, and other relations will need far less and far more...or at least you would have needed far more if we weren't already the Bosses of each of our respective clans._"

"Before you leave, I have a question," Jiraiya prompted.

"_Yes?" _Hou-ou said peeing over in his direction, "_What question do you have for us, Gama Sennin?_"

"I was under the impression that most summon clan Bosses were rather large," Jiraiya said, "How is it that you are so...pardon me I mean to disrespect...small?"

"_We are at this size as we choose to be at this size,_" Hou-ou stated, "_There are certain of our summon clan __number that are able to chose the size in which we appear anywhere. Also it is not the size that matters._"

"Very true," the Hokage said, then spoke to his student, "Have you already forgotten that Enma is not as large as Gamabunta?"

"Ah..yes, gomen," the Gama Sennin apologized for forgetting himself, "I just assumed that the boss of the Ryuu clan would have been a lot bigger or longer, not the length of a small anaconda."

"_Think before spewing words out of that frog mouth of yours next time,_" Watatsumi said, "_Perhaps I should have a chat with Shima-dono regarding your decreased number of brain cells._"

"My most sincere of apologies Watatsumi-sama," the Gama Sennin said, "I'll think before I speak next time."

"_See that you do,_" Watatsumi said, "_Naruto-kun, once again. Feel free to summon us anytime you have need of us._"

"Sure thing," the blonde said, he along with all those present watched as Hou-ou took flight and vanished into the dying rays of the sun, while Watatsumi flew off and vanished above the clouds, "Well that was cool."

It was after that ordeal did he get the idea to summon his girls, just like when those scrolls in the Chunin Exam had been unfurled. He only thought of it after he had learned how to summon, seals may have been one of his fortes but that didn't mean that he was a genius all of the time. He was suicidal sure, but genius, that wasn't a full time thing.

He trained his Haku into arriving at a defensive stance whenever she was summoned into battle from wherever in the world she was, which was usually just at home where she honed her skills when she was not busy doing other things, such as helping around the warehouse or learning useful things at the red light district.

Kin didn't like fighting that much, she was content with her household duties. Though she was still trained in the deadly arts of killing, she had to keep her skills sharp or have them grow sharper. She was the maid of a ninja household after all, she was expected to know how to defend herself.

The seals placed on the backs of the necks of both girls could be used to bring them to their master or send them home where another seal matrix could be found. It was the home anchor, the warehouse serving as the summon realm in which the girls would return once they had served their purpose.

The Hokage found it a bit interesting but not practical when it came to the rest of the village. The cost for having the seals applied alone would cost a fortune, seals and sealmasters were a pricey lot, and Naruto was one of that very lot.

"*"

While not training with his girls, seeing whatever else sized creatures he could summon, Naruto spent his time performing those missions that the Hokage would not want to willingly hand over to those more mortal of his soldiers. Naruto welcomed each one gladly, especially the ones that permitted him to blow stuff up.

He had already gone on three missions that sent mushroom clouds skyward that could be seen from the border of Fire Country. They were quite the sight to see, and now with phoenix and dragon summon clans at his beck and call, he just reached a whole new level of dangerous.

His last mission before he was to partake of his bout against Hyuga Neji, the white eyed bastard already had a very big feeling growing in him that he was going to lose but he didn't have it in him to back down and accept defeat, was one where he was sent out to both Demon and Swamp Countries, where he was to eliminate a threat that had a potential for disaster if it were ever unleashed upon the world once more.

It was something that the Hokage had been making contingencies for for ages, as this was a world level threat and had a demon involved. Now that he had an undying and rather powerful monster at his disposal, why not send the boy out. The worst that could happen was that Naruto would die, but he was sure to take this demon with him. The blonde would be happy about the death, if it were permanent.

This demonic threat to the world went by the name of Mouryou, a demon that had once been human and had at his command an immortal army, they weren't alive to begin with though and were really just a bunch of golems brought to life with demonic magic.

Those things weren't all that important.

The Hokage had dispatched Naruto to eliminate this threat while at the same time giving the blonde the Finals of the Chunin Exam as his deadline.

He left the village under cover of night, and when he deemed himself far enough away he summoned forth Watatsumi to take him the rest of the way, he never would have dreamed of riding atop a dragon of all things, one whose blue scales would allow the dragon to blend perfectly with the dark depths of the seas and oceans that the clan called home.

With a dragon taking him to where he needed to go it didn't take him that long to get there.

His first destination was the Shrine where the Shrine Maiden or Priestess of Demon Country was housed, he needed to give her the 4-11 on what he was tasked with accomplishing.

The priestess was but one among all of those living at the temple fortress that were surprised to see a dragon fly down from the clouds and land just outside of the gate of the fortress. She was one of the first to arrive atop the gate's archway to gaze upon the black clad shinobi that stood atop the dragon's mighty head.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto! And this is Watatsumi," he motioned with a hand to his summon, "The Sandaime Hokage has sent me here to deal with a slumbering problem that goes by the name of Mouryou. I am merely here as a courtesy to inform the Priestess of Demon Country that I shall be ridding her of said problem within the coming days or hours if I can get to destroying the monstrosity fast enough."

He wasn't really a person that followed all the mythological and religious things that some of the world did give importance to. He didn't know that by standing atop his summon and introducing him with such a name would cause him to be hailed as some sort of demigod or deity. One of his captive audience was a priestess for crying out loud, one that ordered one of her soldiers to send a message to the country's capital to make arrangements to better strengthen the country's relations with Fire Country.

"Good luck to you warrior!" the Priestess called out, which made it easier for Naruto to single her out from all those that stood atop the wall, the golden mists and energies within him perked up at the sight of her. There was something around her, it was the counterweight to her gift or curse as some of those of her line viewed it. The curse of farsight, but mostly of unpleasant thoughts.

The ghostly golden mists knew of the full extent of the priestess and her line's prophetic power.

As Watatsumi once again lifted himself and his summoner into the air, ghostly golden chains shot out of the blonde, but they were mistaken for flecks of light. The blonde wondered why they had suddenly shot out of him and kept watch over them that they wouldn't harm anyone, all they did seem to do before returning to him was have their ends change into blades and seemingly cut silver strings away from around the priestess.

He didn't really think much of it, but Watatsumi on the other hand could have sworn that he heard some divine entity scream or shout in frustration for some odd reason.

There were echoes of fates being severed or some such nonsense that didn't really have anything to do with the dragon boss or his summoner.

The pair arrived at where the soul of Mouryou was enshrined. All Naruto had to do to gain access was shown the official mission scroll detailing the Hokage's orders and he got in without having to crack some skulls. Though reintroducing himself and his summon might have had more to do with it than some scroll.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note 1: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

Note 2: Great Possibility of Harem. No Lemons though. Just violence.

.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 12**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

He returned to his village exactly a day before the Chunin Exam finals was to take place.

His mission had been more of a success than he knew, although he was clued in on that fact when he dropped by the Hokage's office to hand in his report on the thing. It truly was a surprise to him, it was really something that he had not been expecting at all.

The Hokage informed him that it had not been even a day since his meeting with the priestess of Demon Country that a messenger-nin had arrived in the village from that country's capital regarding a proposal that would encourage more than better relations between Fire Country and Demon Country. The proposal had already been seen by the eyes and had gained the approval of the Fire Daimyo, all that was left was for the Hokage to sign the thing as well as obtain the agreement of one of the requirements of the proposal for the thing to be set in stone, more or less.

"So what do you say?" the Hokage asked the immortal, "She's quite the catch, and even though I would have to resort to ordering you into accepting, I'd rather you accept out of your own free will. You also do have to admit that it is partially your fault that this happened."

"But why does it have to be me?" the immortal asked, "Can't it be someone else? You know, someone from a more prestigious clan, someone that has been prepared for such a situation?"

"Your name was one of the more specific terms of agreement used in the proposal and subsequent treaty," the Hokage stated, "There's nothing I can really do about it since the Fire Daimyo is already in agreement with the terms, all the thing needs is both yours and my signatures to make everything binding."

"It's not like I have much of a choice," the blonde said, "Though I still can't understand how this is partially my fault."

"This is what you get from neglecting your spiritual and religious studies," the Hokage said, "Use your clones to find out what you did that sparked all this, though you do have to admit that better relations with other countries is a good thing."

"I'll concede to that point," the immortal said, "So any last minute missions I can go on?"

"None that I am able to assign you at this time due to this treaty," the Hokage replied and signed the document after the immortal did the same, "Go read up on mythology and religion, dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-jiji," the immortal said before leaving the room via the door like a normal person, though considering that a lot of the more powerful people in the world had a tendency to not use the door like other people, his action could be seen as abnormal.

He walked around the village for a bit before heading in the direction of his home, the warehouse that everyone knew not to mess with or go near unless one had a perfectly good or important reason to.

He found his tool and maid there, his tool training and his maid performing her household duties. One was quite happy to have him back, while the other was more than a little apprehensive of his return.

But both greeted him with smiles on their faces, intentional on one and forced on the other. He knew that Kin still harbored some fear of him, or terror, or horror. In short, she wasn't all that fond of him, more frightened than anything.

Orochimaru couldn't hold a candle to how frightening and horrifying he was after all, and that was a fact that most other people in the village would agree with. The Sannin couldn't even attain any state of physical immortality unlike the blonde that was cursed with it.

It was a little bit uncharacteristic of him, but he decided to share with the two girls how his mission went. He felt that it was something that normal people did and wanted to experience a bit of normalcy for the time being. The two girls were a bit surprised by his chosen action of showing off a bit of his hidden away human side.

He did remember to ask them what part of his mission or actions during his mission could cause another country to want him to marry an important person to said other country.

It was Kin that explained, which meant that he didn't need to send his clones off to study mythology of any sort, that it was how he performed his introduction and what such a set of actions had implied. There was also the fact that the name of his summon was of legend itself that added a bit of weight on the belief of the people that bore witness to his introduction.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, he had two slaves, and he could add a wife to the list of women in his personal wife, a wife that he had no real encounters with before this whole thing that the Hokage had informed him of.

He was told after the official meeting with the Hokage and before he left that he would be meeting his new wife and would also be marrying her after the Chuunin Exams ended.

The Hokage ended up also informing him that since he was going to be married the Uzumaki clan could be officially revived since there was a visible chance of a revival of a once powerful, famed and feared clan. One that had the possibility of having a bloodline too.

Naruto just hoped that the immortal part or his curse didn't get passed onto any children he might have. That would suck big time, though at the same time at least he would have some companions, and wouldn't be lonely, and there was also the fact that they could seek out his version of heaven together.

But enough about such morbid thoughts, he had other things to do. After telling his tale and generally speaking to the girls and getting an update on how they were doing as well as the condition of their home, he went for a bit of rest in preparation for the next day where he would be facing none other than Hyuga Neji who had no chance of winning whatsoever, though the boy did have a chance of getting promoted to Chuunin if he played his cards right.

Though it wasn't all that likely for such a thing to happen.

#

The next day couldn't have arrived any sooner.

Naruto woke up to find the world, or nature in general, mocking him with how bright everything seemed. But since there was really nothing that he could do about it, he just went with what he did every day. He followed his routine to the letter and made sure to leave some clones in and around his property as a precaution against anyone that would dare to come and vandalize the place or take away Kin from him.

Haku was instructed to be in the stands of the arena where the finals were to be held, it was a precaution of sorts. She didn't mind since she would get to be of use to her master as well as get to see him clean some other genin's clock in front of so many people.

Living with Naruto could make anyone one of two things, either a masochist, like him in a way, or a sadist, again like him in a way.

She became something of a medical sadist and a masochist of sorts in other ways.

He walked to the center of the arena just as everyone else that was participating in the thing had done as soon as they arrived. They were to be acknowledged by the gathered crowd of locals and foreigners after all before their matches were to begin.

No one was late, even Kakashi who had tried to keep to his own personal schedule could not afford to be late, making Sasuke late would have pissed off Naruto or so the silver haired man believed. There was that and the fact that he knew Naruto didn't like it when he was late for whatever reason.

Other than researching for a way to kill Naruto, not that the man ever thought of that reason or believed that such a reason would have worked on the blonde.

After the genins were presented to the crowd of viewers, the Hokage gave the signal to the proctor to begin the match. It was the very same one from the preliminary rounds.

"First match!" the proctor announced, "Uzumaki Naruto versus Hyuga Neji!"

Both combatants took to the field, each one confident in their victory, one due to it being a fact while the other due to it being a habit. Each one of them were geniuses in their own right, one in his profession while the other in seal work and pain.

They faced off, facing one another, though neither one really taking the other all that seriously if what the audience could see with their eyes, but this was a shinobi match and thus what one could see did not necessarily mean that that was the reality.

Naruto was not concerned over the outcome of the match, he was sure of his victory, in fact no one in the shinobi ranks had bet against him, not even the Hyuga clan had dared to bet against him especially after that one mission that Neji was not made aware of.

It was the Hyuga clan head's idea so as to humble his nephew a little bit, before he would be telling the youth the truth about the incident a few years back.

A lot of civilians and foreigners would be losing a lot of money to the shinobi populace of Konoha after the finals were though.

"Begin!" the proctor shouted before vanishing from the arena floor and reappearing in what he deemed as one of the safer places to be for such a match. In the Hokage's booth, behind the Hokage with legs crossed protectively over his twins as a precaution. It was an action that very few missed and a great number did wonder about.

Those that were not in the know did wonder which of the two genin was the proctor steering clear of.

"Hayate..." the Hokage sighed, though he supposed had he been in the tokubetsu jounin's shoes he would have done the same, "Get back in there, hang on a wall or something, your present actions are showing weakness," he old man ordered.

"Do I have to?" the proctor whined, part in fear.

"Yes," the Hokage insisted.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the man said, downtrodden and preparing his last will and testament, as he vanished from the booth and reappeared on one of the walls to oversee the match while praying to whatever deity was listening or watching over him that he would not be meeting his death anytime soon.

Neither of the two genin moved after the proclamation of the start of the match. The blonde waited for his opponent to move, while the blind looking genin sized up his opponent, whom he couldn't recall had castrated one of their comrades in the prelims, his mind had blocked that memory from him as it was that horrific an event.

A few minutes had passed since the beginning of the match and much of the audience was getting restless. Something had to be done before they started booing the two combatants.

The Hokage noticed this and sent a discrete message to the proctor to coerce one of the genin into action. Neji was the one coerced since forcing Naruto into anything, if one wasn't the Hokage, could end badly. Very very very badly.

It seemed that Neji too had noticed the growing impatience of the crowd and thus activated his clan's bloodline ability and charged. His opponent making no move to evade the deadly and precise strikes.

It didn't bother Naruto one bit, each strike was nothing compared to the deadly ferocity of the Hyuga clan head. He was facing just another genin after all, a normal genin. Now had his opponent been Gaara the pain bit would be another matter altogether.

When Neji delivered what was supposed to be his finishing move. He had decided to go in for the kill from the very start. Best to show his best move since his opponent seemed to be incompetent staring out into space as if nothing at all was wrong in the world, or looking as if nothing in the world actually mattered to him.

His decision to get the party started garnered him some cheers from the restless crowd. He felt rather good with his temporary accomplishment, to be acknowledged by the sniveling lesser masses and foreigners. It also served as a distraction which Naruto capitalized on when he finally retaliated.

All of the tenketsu that had been closed had not been closed at all, they had been shielded and he had simply had them pretend to have been sealed by the Hyuga attacks.

If the audience wanted a show, he would give them a show. Flashy was good when it came to impressing potential clients. He could do flashy.

He did flashy, though he did notice the warning look the Hokage did give him when he was about to reach for one of his mushroom cloud causing explosive notes.

The Hokage had made the creation of those notes part of the village's Forbidden Skills or techniques. All that was needed was a small application of chakra and boom no more Konoha or any other village or town for that matter.

It was a secret weapon of sorts, and even the less destructive versions were considered as S-rank seal techniques and were for destruction or mass murder missions only. Though if Naruto really wanted to use one, there was nothing any mortal man could do to stop him from using such a thing.

In this case Naruto was inclined to listen to the more sane Hokage.

He chose to flare his chakra as a cloak around him, the ghostly golden mist trouncing the bijuu's red when it came to the display of visible chakra. To anyone else this would be a show of poor chakra control, but since this was Naruto it could have been forgiven or expected even. Here was a genin that could wipe the floor with any of the shinobi present in the stadium that day.

There were some members of the audience that were reminded of the Yondaime Hokage or Yellow Flash and the technique that gave him that nickname. Some even managed to put two and two together, but there weren't really that many of them since the light display was rather distracting.

If the audience wanted flashy and he couldn't blow stuff up since it would be bad and since the Hokage didn't allow him to blow stuff up for the finals, he decided to turn the arena into a pinball field and his opponent into the ball that would be bouncing around. Now if only he could coerce his opponent into putting up some kind of spherical ultimate defense.

Clones appeared all around the arena in strategic locations, or at least they looked that way to the audience, but to Naruto they were just placed in positions that would make the human ball easier to control. Once the Hyuga did turn into some kind of ball.

It wouldn't do to kill the guy, since he hadn't insulted his dream or lack of parents yet. The genin was smart enough to keep his mouth shut regarding such things at least.

With clones in position and the Hyuga gawking at him and his ability to mold chakra even though he should for all accounts already be dead as a doornail, he charged. He blurred into a demon of speed the only reason anyone was able to track his movements was due to the yellow glow that covered his whole body.

It was his tactic of forcing the Hyuga into performing that special spin of theirs that he had encountered during that one mission of his.

To the untrained eye that had witnessed his creation of clones, it looked as if he was bombarding his opponent with clones, but in reality it was only himself that was attacking from all sides. He was a demon of speed, it was his choice, and even though he made sure to pull his punches, the speed that he was traveling and the sheer number of successful hits more than made up for the fact that they were all light love taps.

He made sure that when he noticed his opponent even begin to consider using his ultimate defense he would give his fellow some time to gather what was needed to show off a little bit.

The first opening he made was ignored, so he continued to bombard the Hyuga with love taps that shouldn't have really hurt the girly-boy. His second gifted opening was used by the Hyuga to try and go into the offensive, it didn't work, which was why on the third gifted opening the Kaiten was utilized.

With that sphere of defensive chakra propped up and spinning, Naruto proceeded to turn the ball of chakra that covered the Hyuga into his own little plaything. Pushing chakra into the spinning mass made sure that it would continue even after the one that started the technique stopped giving it juice.

The audience was delighted at what they believed to be pain and suffering on the part of one of the combatants even though it was just Naruto fooling around with a genin trapped in his own ultimate defense.

He got kicked and punched around by clones while the original played with some slabs of earth that he used as bats of sorts to flick the blue ball of visible chakra sphere covered genin back into the clones waiting punches and kicks.

When the crowd began to show signs of dissatisfaction of the rather repetitive events down in the arena, Naruto decided that it was probably time to end things so that the next match could begin and the audience would get to see something new.

Something in his resurfaced when he made the decision to end the match. He dispelled all of his clones allowing his opponent to slam painfully into a wall as all the chakra that was keeping the defensive dome intact was taken away by the one that had infused it with so much.

As he groggily and dizzily moved to stand on his own two feet he was forced to kiss the earth as he was drop kicked by his opponent. The pain was intense and the automatic mental blocks that had kept the memory of the Inuzuka's beating from being made known to him were shattered due to the pain redirecting those mental functions elsewhere.

Being reminded of such intense pain was not that good and knowing what could possibly happen to him for no apparent reason he tried to forfeit while he still had the ability to procreate. Tried.

"You gonna call it or do I have to actually kill him?" Naruto called out to the proctor that hadn't moved an inch since he arrived on the wall he was still perched upon.

"WINNER NARUTO! MEDICS!" the proctor hurriedly shouted as ran as far as the Hokage would allow from the blonde immortal that scared the crap out of him.

Naruto walked on over to where the other competitors were waiting for their turns as the medics busied themselves with the care of one Hyuga Neji who had lost and who had decided that perhaps it was time to abandon fate, especially seeing as he recalled a certain painful memory that showed that nothing was set in stone and that there were more powerful things that Fate.

Chouji, Shikamaru, Shino, Temari, and Kankuro, made sure to stay as far away as their booth would allow them from Naruto, while the blonde immortal's teammates and Gaara didn't mind staying near him. The rest of Team 7 knew that he wouldn't go insane on them and the Suna jinchuuriki trusted his brother in semi-burden, that and all three of them were a tiny bit insane themselves compared to Naruto.

"*"

The proctor of the finals was a bit calmer before the second match of the small tournament.

"Next match is Haruno Sakura versus Akimichi Chouji!" the proctor announced to the cheers of the audience who couldn't wait for the next spectacle.

The two genin made their way to their respective positions in the arena for their own match. Their respective teammates whispering them words of encouragement before each left the competitor's booth.

Sakura had been told to take things seriously by both her teammates while Chouji was told that there would be an all-you-can-eat buffet waiting for him should he take things seriously, which meant that he couldn't let the F-word control him should it be used during the match.

"Begin!" the proctor announced before climbing back up on his chosen wall, he had a feeling that remaining on the ground would be very bad for his already bad or deteriorated health. Sakura was, after all, Naruto's teammate. That was reason alone to be weary of her.

Sakura wasted no time, as soon as the word begin was uttered she covered her fists in Doton chakra and punched the ground with all her might, directing the force of the blow as well as some chakra into sending the earth forward and in the direction of her opponent. The intention was to send the chubby boy skyward where she would follow him as she had a feeling that that boy was useless when it came to aerial assaults.

She may walk the path of the Doton, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to battle in the air. Sasuke had helped her with that and Naruto had provided her with some training clones for the purpose of battling while in the air.

Chouji was not expecting such a thing to happen and therefore was unable to move out of the way in time. He was too late, and had underestimated his opponent. He didn't think that what had happened during the preliminary rounds had been anything more than a fluke or something.

Thus he was flung into the air and no control of his body's movements other than his flailing and attempts to get back on the ground where he would at least be able to deal some devastating damage using his family's techniques.

What he found upon the apex of his aerial journey was Sakura with a Doton chakra powered leg slamming into his face sending his chubby body hurtling back to the ground where it slammed into the dirt causing a lot of soil to fly and a crater to form.

Sakura wasn't Naruto and thus she couldn't really afford to relax during her bout. She promised to take things seriously after all and thus followed her drop kick with a a body slam. Normally such a thing would not be possible, but since she walked the path of the Doton she could cover herself in something similar to Sasuke's lightning and flame armor. Her's was made of earth, the rocky to diamond kind.

She fell unto her opponent like a meteor, deepening the crater. The force of her body slam could have lost any other shinobi their career, but since she was dealing with a rather pleasantly plump Akimichi she was sure that her opponent could take the beating that she was gleefully dishing out.

Due to being a kind of bookworm back during her academy days, she had read up on all of the clans of her classmates that had obvious clans or important clans within the village, thus she was aware of each clan's general specialties. She knew what her opponent was capable off and thus tried her very best not to give him an exploitable opening that could cost her the match and the potential promotion.

She was no speed demon, but up against a genin that didn't seem to take things as seriously as Team 7 did, she was fast enough to make sure that the genin was not given the time or opportunity to attack.

Unlike Sasuke's whose transformation or power-up technique had a lot of visible signs of being activated. Hers was rather subtle. Her skin was as hard as her chakra control could make it, and her weight was as heavy as she could afford to be. Of course she couldn't feel her weight, it was just her normal weight multiplied by a certain amount that depended on a number of factors that she didn't really have to think about.

Her muscles compensated automatically for the increase in weight, hardness of her skin and bones, as well as the sudden increase in strength. It was all chakra control, and she had perfect chakra control due to her formerly small reserves.

Chouji barely got to his knees while in the crater his body had created before he felt a most painful sensation, one that hurt more than being called the F-word ever could.

It was a pain far worse than getting castrated ever could, in his opinion since he had never had the chance or opportunity to experience such a vile experience.

His last bag of chips which served as a kind of power up for him had been taken from him just as he managed to get onto that one knee, this was while his body protested against the pain.

His opponent was aware of what the F-word could do to him, was aware of what giving him an opening could do for him. His opponent had enough intel on what he was capable of to know how else to provoke him, as well as torture him.

The audience on the other hand was mostly ignorant of the reasons behind Sakura's taking of a simple single bag of chips and emptying the thing of its contents save for a single chip in front of the downed and almost defeated Akimichi.

Chouza, Chouji's father, had to be forcibly restrained by his two friends and often times teammates.

"The last chip," Sakura mocked, "The very last one..." she trailed off for a bit pretending to think about what she would be doing with it, "What should I do with it, I wonder?"

She had been clued in by Naruto that while she was to take her match seriously, she should also give her opponent the chance to show off a little bit. But it had to be a calculated move on her part, she still had to win.

Which was why she was deliberately pissing off the downed genin in the only sure way she knew how. She wanted him to use his family's body part enlarging techniques, or at the very least just one of them.

"I think I'll eat it," she said and began the motions to place the last chip into her slowly and dramatically opening mouth.

The downed boy wasted no time in getting angry, in entering that semi-berserker rage that the F-word was known for causing him into entering.

He caused his arms, both of them, to enlarge, expand, and moved at a speed that most fat people would be unable to move at and bear hugged Sakura with all his might. His intention was to strangle her while at the same time get that last chip in his mouth.

His arms eventually enveloped her, he failed to notice the lack of cry of pain form her end as he was far too focused on the last chip which he did somehow manage to get in his mouth for him to momentarily savor.

Momentarily, because several pains shot up both of his arms which forced him to let go of the girl he had embraced with his powerful and expanded arms.

What he found instead of the Sakura he had been facing and being beaten swiftly by was a Sakura porcupine. She had spikes of earth protruding from her body, which had been the cause for his sudden letting go of her due to the pain his arms had suddenly undergone.

The sight that the pleasantly plump boy saw standing before his downed and pained form was the true form of Sakura's transformation technique. She was as immovable as a mountain, or at least as close as she could get to that state at her present control and chakra reserves, and at the same time she was as dangerous as a cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites with the possibility of a cave in.

Chouji knew that he was in deep trouble the moment he laid eyes upon her. She was a kunoichi, gone, more or less, was the fangirl he thought of her as, gone was the pure bookworm that wasn't any real good at physical activities barely passing such activities but topping anything that needed smarts. Here now stood a kunoichi that took her profession seriously.

Here stood Team 7's impenetrable wall. Chouji was glad that he didn't have to face Sasuke, or worse...Naruto.

"I...give up," Chouji whispered, loud enough for the proctor to hear, the man was glad to end the match, he had been expecting something, but not what this mere kunoichi of a genin had been able to showcase.

"Winner Haruno Sakura! MEDICS!" the proctor proclaimed and shouted for. Chouji did need some first aid for the wounds that weren't critical due to his increase in mass, be it muscle or fat.

As Chouji was carried on a stretcher out of the arena by medics, the female member of team 7 made her way to her teammates who congratulated her on a job well done. She was sure to be promoted, or at least her two teammates believed that she had shown that she had what it took to advance to the next level in ranking.

"*"

Shikamaru and Temari's match was rather boring and tame in comparison with Naruto's and Sakura's bouts. No real attacks, just one sided mind games. But all those that were aware of what had happened during the match knew that Shikamaru had cemented his spot among those that were to be promoted.

"Next match Uchiha Sasuke.." the proctor had to pause since the cheers from the audience were rather deafening, more or less, and when they calmed down enough he continued, "As I was saying, Uchiha Sasuke versus Sabaku no Kankuro!"

Both combatants made their way to their designated starting positions.

"Begin!" the proctor announced before escaping to his safe spot, he was sure that the last loyal Uchiha could be classed as certifiably insane, what with his history and the evil grin that plastered itself onto his face.

Sasuke wasted no time at all, he activated his transformation technique and looked more or less as he did in the prelims, the difference being his change of attire.

If Sakura was the impenetrable wall of the team or shield of the team, he was the sword, while Naruto...anyone that knew him would think that he was the End of the World waiting to happen.

Sasuke had already seen the puppeteer before him at play and thus knew what to expect, what he didn't expect was for the puppeteer to try and give up. He couldn't have that at all, and so he attacked.

The ground beneath his feet were scorched black as he struck like lightning, causing the puppet that stood on the field to gain a hole that went right through it and caused a wound to be inflicted upon the puppeteer who hid in the bundle on the puppet's back.

Kakashi had helped him when it came to increasing his speed and accuracy when his vision went all tunnel vision on him. He was taught to be more aware of his surrounding. He was also taught how to turn his entire transformed body into a weapon, a sharp one that not only cut but burned as well.

He was lightning, swift, and at the same time like fire...devastating.

Normally a chakra draining Aburame would be the worst nightmare of a puppet user, but in this case, Sasuke was far more destructive.

"H-Hey! W-Wait..!" Kankuro tried to get a word in edgewise, but was unable to say more as he was forced to reveal that he wasn't really genin-level in skill but chunin at the very least.

He was forced to reveal what he was capable of.

Two puppets were brought onto the field, and the battle became a game of cat and mouse as well as a game of tag.

Lightning flew around the arena as well as flames trailing at his sides. It was touch and go for the most part, until Kankuro managed to actually land a solid blow that sent Sasuke flying into the wall closest to him.

The Uchiha was not given any time to recover from the attack, but thankfully his armor was still up, it nullified the poison gas cloud that was sent his way by the two puppets that the puppeteer had out in the open fighting as he hid somewhere in the arena.

The poison gas cloud was able to perform its other intended purpose. It had shrouded the Uchiha in semi-darkness, which gave the puppets a lot of room to attack or bombard the Uchiha with attacks, his lightning and flame armor was not enough to truly block all the pointy things that hit him.

Injured his mind came up with only one course of action to take.

He took to the skies and did one thing that he knew Naruto was going to be scolding him for, not due to the destructive power of the attack, but for not testing the thing out on him first.

It was a good thing that he more or less memorized where he had been as well as the dimensions of the arena. He was going for an area of effect of AOE attack, one that could level the playing field by a lot or simply destroy the enemy within the area that he would be...destroying.

The inspiration for the technique was Naruto, it had Naruto written all over it.

He had shot up into the sky, and when he judged himself over the center of the arena he forced his armor away from his body, creating something like a blanket to cover the arena.

The mechanics of the technique would be difficult to explain in great detail.

All anyone saw was Sasuke who had his eyes closed due to the chemical that had temporarily gotten him blind, the lightning and flame that surrounded him shooting away from his body in one swift motion, and suddenly bolts of lightning streaked towards the ground accompanied by gouts of flame and fireballs raining down from the sky. This happened at the same time as Sasuke began to return to the ground.

By the time that the genin touched down, the two puppets were in states of disrepair that would require a few months of recuperation before they could be used in battle once again.

The puppeteer too would be needing a lot of rest and recuperation before he could be of use to his village again. His hiding spot was not good enough to keep him protected from the bolts of lightning and balls of fire that had rained down from the mesh of lightning and flame that had spread out and over their battlefield.

"Winner Uchiha Sasuke! MEDICS!" the proctor shouted from within a dome of earth that he had erected around himself to protect himself from the attack that was sure to fry him senseless or nerveless had he not defended himself from it.

Sasuke walked back to his teammates who congratulated him and also gave him some chakra replenishing pills in preparation for his next battle. He had used quite a lot of chakra in his battle against the ambush predator.

Some water was used to return his vision.

"*"

When Shino's name was called, he knew that he stood no chance against the Suna-nin known as Gaara. If a powerhouse such as Rock Lee could not beat him, then what more him, a bug-user. There was also the fact that his bugs refused suck up Gaara's chakra for some reason, they informed him that it was poisonous and suicide for them to try.

He gave up as soon as he stepped onto the field. Sure he got some 'boos' but his life was more important than some promotion. He wasn't even protecting his village here, just participating in some advancement test. One that he could have passed had his opponent not been so overwhelmingly unbeatable.

Though he wouldn't want to have to face Uzumaki Naruto, his bugs were more frightened of Naruto than of Gaara, and that was saying something, the preliminary rounds incident with Kiba had nothing to do with it.

Nothing at all, though it would explain why standing within such close proximity caused him to subtly cross his legs protectively over his twins.

There was no rest period he noticed between the first rounds of the tournament styled test and the second bunch of rounds.

It was as if someone was intentionally rushing the exam, trying to get it over with as fast as possible in order for some other event to begin or gain the opportunity to begin. Whatever it was, it set his bugs on edge, they were wary of something, and the messenger beetle from his father and clan head was not a good sign, especially when he was told to prepare himself for something bigger than a mere advancement exam.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has been copyrighted. I make no money out of this, I only entertain, or try to. I am only paid in smiles, reviews, and in people liking what I've shared.

Note 1: AU, may contain sues, crack, ocs, oocs, etc.

Note 2: Great Possibility of Harem. No Lemons though. Just violence.

.

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**Heaven Is But A Dream**

_**.**_

_**Chapter 13**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

The first match of the second round was between Sasuke and Gaara, but it didn't get any farther than "Begin". Since what happened after that was something that had nothing at all to do with the advancement exam, and more to do with surviving something that could be considered as a small war breaking out in one of the 5 Great Hidden Villages.

The upper echelon of shinobi knew about the invasion, just not when exactly the fighting was to begin. But there were three genin that were in the know, or four since Shino's father had informed him to be prepared, something which he had discreetly passed along to those that he believed should know about it.

He didn't bother with Team 7 since they didn't need to be told if their body language and insanity was anything to go by.

As soon as the fighting began, Shino was out of the arena and busy fighting his share of Oto-nin and Suna-nin.

Team 7 on the other hand were busy heading out to do as they were commanded by their commanding officer, Kakashi.

Sakura was sent off to the Hospital as he was sure that such a place would need protection and what better protection than one that walked the path of the Doton.

Sasuke was sent after Gaara, whom Kakashi was not aware of was a friend of Team 7. He was a major threat to the village and needed to be stopped at all costs.

Naruto didn't stick around to get any orders and just went off in search of the Hokage who had vanished from his booth. Finding the old man was easy, getting to him was something else entirely.

"*"

Sasuke, with his chakra reserves at full, rushed after the slowly descending into insanity friend of his that he was sure only Naruto could stop if said friend went nuts on the village. But he had his orders and friend or not, he still needed to stop the red head from wreaking havoc within the village.

His friend's sister and brother had tried to stop him. But Shino decided to take on Kankuro and Shikamaru just so happened to arrive and decided to stall the wind and fan using kunoichi, giving Sasuke enough of an excuse to chase after his red headed friend.

"Hey Gaara!" Sasuke called after his friend that was in the midst of a partial transformation, "Let's go wild!"

No verbal response came from Gaara who had already descended into madness, but if the grunt from the partial red head was anything to do by, his friend had agreed on the go wild part.

Sasuke entered his transformed state and attacked with everything he had, except for a little something he had stumbled upon and would not be using unless he absolutely had to. It was a very chakra draining technique after all.

Lightning and fire battled against wind and sand. Water was the only element that was not represented in the battle between two maniacs.

Lightning spears tore through bullets of wind, and bullets of wind as well as mini tornadoes did away with any fire attacks that met them.

No physical blows were traded, it was a purely mid to long range kind of fight. Sasuke couldn't afford for things to get physical, he was sure that a physical fight was something that he had a slim chance of surviving.

The area in which the two of them were battling swiftly became something that was littered with destroyed earth, craters and downed trees. It was utter destruction, it actually looked like a high, stoned, drunk, and whatever else Akimichi had gone nuts in the area, but more destructive looking than what that could have caused.

The trading of elemental attacks was ended when Gaara finally lost his ability to think for himself and finally was forced to give into the monster that he held within him, the one that felt no fear since Naruto was not around to scare him into a quivering mess of black to purple chakra.

A rapid transformation took place, one that thankfully Sasuke was prepared for what with having been given a heads up by the red head himself of the possibility of facing this sand monster that Suna had locked away in him.

This was the cue for his trump card to be used.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out as he slammed a bloodied hand against the ground.

A plume of smoke erupted from where the seal script had previously been.

Instead of some large summon to battle the semi-released bijuu, there were five large falcons, large enough for Sasuke to stand atop comfortably without the fear of falling off.

Sasuke had stumbled upon the contract amongst his brother's things, it had actually been gift wrapped and addressed to him. So he did what any sane person would and signed his name in blood on the space provided and asked Naruto for some help since he knew that Naruto would be able to help him somehow.

So here he was, standing on one of his five primary summons, all five actually sharing the position and title of boss, preparing himself mentally to face his friend and at the same time foe.

"Any idea how to stop him? Aside from waking the jinchuuriki up?" Sasuke asked the falcon he was standing on, all five had positioned themselves just out of reach of the suna tanuki.

"_You'll have to get in very close to wake him up, a chakra powered punch of headbutt ought to do the trick,_" his summon said before evading several wind blasts that would have killed the two of them had the attacks actually hit their target.

"I think I've still got enough chakra to get to him, but I'll need all five of you to distract the tanuki," Sasuke said, "I'll also need you to somehow get me onto that thing."

"_No problem,_" the falcon said, "_I'll get you on._"

Without further ado, the falcon boss signaled his brothers into attacking the tanuki with all sorts of wind and lightning attacks that they could think of and use, while the one that Sasuke was riding maneuvered his way through all those attacks and counterattacks all the while making sure that Sasuke was still safely on his back. When they were both close enough to the tanuki, Sasuke took his leap of faith.

Once he landed on the sandy skin of the tanuki he ran, leaving glass in his wake instead of simple sand.

He had a friend to wake up after all.

"*"

The hospital could not be evacuated completely, there were some patients that couldn't be moved. It was quite the hassle, but at the same time it couldn't be helped. Which was why there was quite a number of Konoha-nin that were defending the building and its inhabitants from harm. Some of the less injured inhabitants had tried to help, but their offers of aid and support were refused, though they were told that only able bodied support staff would be permitted to join the fray, those that were still recuperating were not permitted to help in any way other than to try and get better and let those that were still uninjured defend them.

Most of those shinobi that had been turned down due to their injuries and recovering states felt down that they were unable to aid their comrades in this hour of their village's need. But there really wasn't much that they could do about it.

Though they did make it a point to put up some sort of blockade in the lobby just in case someone or something managed to get past the shinobi defending the hospital.

These shinobi were rather surprised when Sakura arrived on the scene, her arms covered in earth spikes, which she used in place of kunai. Some of the sensors that were in the lobby and observing the fighting as well as coordinating the rescue or retrieval efforts noticed that her chakra reserves were in mid-chuunin but at the same time were being used up quite rapidly due to her technique, but at the same time her reserves were being replenished so long as a part of her body was touching the ground.

She also just so happened to be what could only be noted as the last line of defense before it was left up to the injured to defend the hospital. She was all that stood in the way of any that managed to make it past the chunin and jounin that were defending the building.

And she was doing a pretty good job at it too.

Or so it had seemed up until a three headed snake made its way through the village and scattered several of the defenders all over the place. There were several others of its kind suddenly finding themselves all over the village.

Orochimaru had surely struck since only he and one other were able to summon the snakes. Mitarashi Anko was loyal to Konoha and thus wouldn't be summoning serpents to help destroy the village that she did so love, even though there were many that didn't love her in return or respect her, or care about her.

With the defenders scattered around the place, along with some attackers, Sakura truly was the last line of defense against this latest form of attacker or invader.

"My body is going to be in so much pain when this is over, I hope that it'll be worth it," Sakura said to no one in particular save for herself.

Those listening in wondered what she meant by that.

The sensors and one Hyuga were the first to be clued in on what was going on. The Hyuga in particular as his almost all seeing eyes witnessed Sakura's bones being replaced by something much harder, something more solid, he wasn't quite sure what it was exactly, but he was sure that it wasn't bone.

Sakura's bones underwent a transformation, from bone they turned into the hardest thing that she could turn them into, which was the same as her skin. Diamond. What she meant by pain later on was that to return the diamond skeletal system back into bone was going to hurt quite a lot since returning to a more human state would require whatever chakra remaining in her body to dissolve the semi-chakra constructs and force her blood to replace what had been earlier replaced. It was quite a painful process, it was like regrowing bones after shattering or melting them or returning them to their base materials.

She had accidentally stumbled upon the technique when she had been training on her own and trying to find a way to make her transformation stronger. She felt that having skin as tough as a diamond, and weight that could match a small mountain, were not that good enough as compared to her male teammates that could do so much more than her, though comparing herself to Naruto was like comparing an ant to Kami.

It had only been her hand's bones that had turned into movable or malleable diamond, but when she cut off or stopped the transformation technique in its entirety, she found herself in a world of pain, as if her hand was on fire and colder than ice at the same time.

She supposed that when she had more chakra at her beck and call and even better control, she would be able to lessen the pain she felt after the technique had run its course.

It was a technique that she was sure her masochistic and sadistic teammate would surely love to experiment with, which gave rise to the thinking that she should remember to ask the blonde if he had a way of transferring pain someone else into himself. It was something that she had thought of so that she could be of more help to her comrade than be a burden, not that she was much of one anymore. She wanted her pain to have more of a purpose.

There was something she didn't know about her transformation technique. That being that while it was engaged, she became something like a natural sage but at the same time not. Her body automatically gathered nature chakra, or rather natured chakra, natural earth natured chakra to be exact and converted it into her own chakra, just with the nature intact. Though it was only possible when she was touching her element. She wasn't aware of it, and thus had not been able to experiment with it.

The three headed snake that had only one little girl in its path paid little heed to the genin as it tried to slither its way to the hospital in order to cripple the morale of Konoha.

Tried.

Tried and failed as it found that its body could go no further that that bubblegum haired genin.

Here was one genin holding her own against a summon, a rather large and pissed off summon.

Pissed off summon or no, there were very few things in the world that could compare to a pissed off Naruto, which was why she didn't appear fazed at all.

It truly amazed those that bore witness to her bravery, or stupidity as some might have seen it. But actions speak louder than words, though she did have some rather loud words.

"Either you turn around and leave, go try and destroy something else, or continue to try and destroy the hospital which will cause me to get quite upset," she shouted at the snake, "My sensei ordered me to protect the hospital, so if you try and destroy it, I'll kick your tail!"

The snake paid her no mind, and tried once more to advance towards its objective only to find itself trying to scratch an itch that just kept on moving. That itch being Sakura running up the snake using the basics of the tree-climbing exercise and chakra control training technique.

"I warned you," she said, and upon reaching the top of the middle head, began her attack.

Tsunade of the Sannin would be rather interested in the pink hiaired kunoichi had she borne witness to the beating the little girl gave the three headed snake who for some reason couldn't escape back to the snake summon realm.

If it wasn't physical punches and kicks or attempts to break snake bones, Sakura resorted to using her spikes which were rather pointy and painful to anyone or anything that she decided to skewer them with.

When she felt that she was running low of chakra to power her transformation technique she allowed herself to fall to the ground whereupon she felt her reserves fill themselves faster, she paid the rate no mind and simply went back to beating up the snake that decided to not listen to her in the first place.

Her beating up such a large thing on her own without any support from anyone that was of a clearly higher rank than her scared anyone else from trying to attack the hospital.

She eventually did stop fighting when the summon finally managed to reverse summon itself home where it would proceed to tell its tale about the scary pink haired monster that attacked it on its way to destroy the hospital of the enemy.

"*"

Naruto's fight was a bit more insane, seeing as he managed to make it through the barrier that would have permanently ended the life of anyone else that just so happened to try and breach it. He followed this amazing feat by throwing the Hokage at his Anbu guard after taking out one of the corners of the barrier team.

He had mercilessly taken out that one freak with two heads and only one body. They were in his way and thus needed to be removed from the world of life, that and they kept him from the old man.

He did more than fry their brains from pain overload, he tore the single body to pieces, using the ghostly golden chakra strings to do the cutting for him. The Hokage was thrown to the tender mercies of his own Anbu as soon as Naruto reached him.

"Kick my former student's ass while we go help out in the village!" the Hokage ordered before leaving the blonde to his own devices, which actually kind of scared the Hebi Sannin.

If the Hokage willingly left a genin to do a Sannin's job then that must have meant that the genin was not to be underestimated, and if the evil grin was anything to do by, the Snake summoner was in for the fight of his life.

The nuke-nin did not know just how deep the depths of hell he was in. He was not aware of how truly hopeless his situation was. He did not know how short his life was, or how much of his life he had left.

Had his spies gone and uncovered a little bit more, or rather specifically the well kept secret that was Naruto's immortality he might have tried to revise his plans, making sure that he would not be crossing paths with the blonde monstrosity.

He had witnessed some of what the blonde was already capable of, and was a little worried but not by much about what was about to take place.

"So he's left you to fight me, a little genin," the snake-man said with a sneer, it was a bit more bark than bite, "You may have taken out one of my elites, but there are still three more of them, and there is still me."

"I'll take care of them first then while you prepare whatever jutsu you've been wanting to use," the blonde immortal said and summoned his tool that had been waiting to hear or feel her master's call.

Haku appeared in a small cloud of smoke, fully prepared for battle.

"Deal with the pests while I deal with their master," Naruto commanded, and Haku obeyed.

The remaining elites of Oto dropped the barrier they partially held up to keep others away from their master and all at the same time engaged the kunoichi.

Domes of ice mirrors formed around each of the remaining elites after two half handseals were used. No time was given to them to wonder what was supposed to happen. Haku didn't bother giving them any chance to figure out something or plan. She unleashed barrage upon barrage of ice needles, turning her opponents into living pin cushions.

When she believed the small ice needles were not enough, she increased their size as well as their sharpness.

Having done that, and turning her opponents into even larger pin cushions, she turned the insides of the domes of ice mirrors into freezers, it was a slow process but it wasn't like her opponents could really do anything about it anyway. Their limbs and chakra were preoccupied with the needles and javelins that had skewered them, and the cold was something that even the most experienced of warriors would have a hard time battling against and winning.

By the time she finished Orochimaru too had finished preparation for his trump card for the fall of Konoha.

"Kuchiyose Edo Tensei!" the Hebi Sannin called out as he caused three sealing arrays to appear on the roof followed by three coffins to rise out of those arrays. Each one had a number on each of their covers, one, two and four.

"Behold! My trump cards!" Orochimaru announced gleefully.

Each cover opened to reveal a pristine replica of each of the four deceased Hokage. Hashirama, Tobirama, and Minato. Shodaime, Nidaime, and Yondaime. To any other warrior of Konoha facing such opponents would have been seen as hopeless, that all was lot. But not Naruto, and especially not when considering that there was a lot of sealing was involved with it all.

"Well are you going to say anything?" Orochimaru asked of his now two oppponents.

"Haku," Naruto spoke commandingly, "Go protect Kin."

"Hai, Naruto-sama," she replied and left in a swirl of snow flakes, leaving Naruto more or less alone against someone that had orchestrated such a wide scale attack on Konoha.

"Are you even minding me?" Orochimaru demanded exhasperatedly, it was annoying when someone was not paying him any attention. Even at his advanced age, he still remained a semi-spoiled brat.

"Hai hai," the blonde said, "Let's get this over with, apply your seals so that I can show you how pathetic you are compared to this genin."

"Tch, prepare to die brat," Orochimaru said as he applied a seal to the back of the heads of each of the deceased Hokage, "Kill him and destroy the village which you all died for."

"Hai," all three replied, it wasn't like they had any choice in the matter after all.

"Rest in peace and cherish the heaven which I have been continuously denied," Naruto spoke as he brought out several very special chakra strings, his ghostly golden energies emerging around him like whips.

"A fancy light show won't be enough to beat me and my tools," Orochimaru mocked.

"You sure about that?" Naruto asked, a bit mockingly in return.

Threads of light danced around him as the three kage prepared some devastating attacks.

"Kill him already!" Orochimaru ordered his semi-defiant tools, who were stalling with their preparations for their devastating jutsu. It was all they could do to protect their precious village while at the same time obeying this traitor to their precious village.

"Alright, I'm bored and I'm not dying or dead...so.." Naruto said and attacked.

One must remember that with his exceptional chakra reserves and mastery of Kage Bunshin, he was a force to be reckoned with. Then there was the fact that most of his personal techniques used pain. Add the fact that he loved destruction. And you get a genin that not even a Sannin would be able to stop should be actually decide to go all out.

An explosion of fire and wood erupted from the rooftop to signify the beginning of the Shodaime's attack. The thick branches and other parts of the growing tree entwined themselves around the blonde in an attempt to crush him while the flames that accompanied them tried to burn him to more than a crisp. Hearing his laughter at what should have been a very painful experience kind of unnerved the already dead man as well as the one that had forcibly ripped him from the afterlife.

Before any more chakra could be pumped into the jutsu, the tree burst into more than just flames to reveal a grinning blonde with crushed and severed body parts hanging from nearly ripped skin. Most people would already be dead, Naruto was grinning in joy.

"MORE! MORE!" the blonde shouted, "Hurt me MORE! Try and kill me more! Or was that the best you could do?"

The burning tree of fire was followed up by the crushing force of the waters. A tower of water surrounded the blonde and the underwater pressure tried its very best to turn the blonde into mush.

The same thing happened as what had happened with the tree and flames. Even when some lightning was added into the mix, the blonde still emerged relatively alive, albeit soaking wet.

"Really Hebi-teme, is that the best you can do? I heard stories told of how you could single handedly take out an army of enemy ninja!" Naruto mocked, which had the desired effect of the long haired pale man throw up a sword from his innards and try and skewer the blonde.

The man did succeed in cutting the blonde up into little pieces and ribbons. But all that anger was for naught as he watched in growing horror as the blonde simply reformed right before their very eyes. Wisps and strings of golden light pulled all that had been separated from the biggest chunk of the blonde back to it. This was followed by everything sowing themselves back into one whole human once more.

"Meh, I've felt worse," Naruto mocked, not really paying much attention to his fellow blonde, a blonde that could have passed off as his older brother even.

Normally such inattention would have cost him dearly, but even the sudden appearance of his fellow blonde right in his face, followed by an attack that could have been used to kill a hundred people in a matter of seconds had really done much to faze the little blonde immortal who continued his mocking.

"You know, I always thought that the Yondaime was someone worth looking up to," Naruto said, offhandedly, "But really, attacking from behind, or wherever he came from. Bad form. Bad form indeed."

"We're ninja! Backstabbing should be normal!" Orochimaru argued, his grip on his sword growing stronger with his frustration at the inability of three kage level shinobi to eliminate one short blonde genin. A genin was keeping him at bay, while the Hokage went off to Kami knows where to help a village that should have been a stain on the maps of the world several minutes ago already.

"Yeah I know," Naruto stated, vanished from where he had been standing or had landed after his body had been cut up with numerous mortal wounds by the Yondaime, and reappeared right behind each Hokage, though the other two were his clones.

'_There is no way that this is a mere genin..._' was all Orochimaru could think as he watched the seals he had placed on each Kage turn to ash, which was shortly followed by the Kages themselves, '_Definitely not some normal genin..._'

One swift motion and the Hebi Sannin found himself surrounded by a rapidly growing number of seals. They seemed to be writing themselves on the roof and were swiftly making their way to the Sannin himself.

'_What in the world is happening?_' the Sannin wondered, as he had his hands swiftly go through a set of seals for a jutsu that he planned on firing.

"I'm going to hurt you so bad that you're going to regret the day you decided to learn every jutsu in the world," Naruto stated, that was all the warning the sannin got before the seal script covered him from head to toe.

He didn't know what the seals were supposed to do to him, but he did eventually find out when he activated his jutsu, a fire one. Instead of blowing out a stream of flames almost as hot as the sun, he felt his insides burn, starting with his own lungs.

Followed by all the closest organs, before he felt that he should have died a long time ago. Once the burning sensation reached the tips of his fingers he found himself barely gasping for air on the ground. He could barely find the strength in him to move his arms, or any other part of his body for that matter.

"I think I can kick your ass now," Naruto informed the Sannin, who could do nothing but raise his ass and prepare to literally get kicked in the posterior.

It was a bit out of the blue, but Naruto did indeed kick the Sannin on his ass, the man flew for a bit before he was turned into an aerial pinball.

It was a good thing for the man that only one Oto-nin had witnessed such humiliation on his part. That Oto-nin being his right hand man, Kabuto, who made away with his true leader once the man smashed into and thorugh the roof of the stadium. The move was fast enough to avoid Naruto, and also fast enough to elicit a shout of annoyance from the blonde who proceeded to vent his frustration on his somewhat failure on any and all Oto-nin that had the unfortunate luck to find themselves in his way as he made his way to the Hokage to report on his partial failure.

Partial only since the man was still alive, the partial success part was in the fact that the man only had Taijutsu, summoning, and internal use of his chakra, no jutsu could be used by the man due to all the layer upon layers of seals that had been placed on the man.


End file.
